


Heart of the Moon

by Thornvale



Category: Moana (2016)
Genre: Adventure, Friendship, Gen, Magic, Mythology - Freeform, Original Character(s), Rivalry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-10
Updated: 2017-11-15
Packaged: 2018-09-07 15:04:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 43,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8805493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thornvale/pseuds/Thornvale
Summary: When a corrupted goddess steals the Moon away to the Underworld, Moana and Maui are forced to traverse the ocean and the Realm of Monsters to bring back the fire stolen from the realm beneath the waves long ago. Lalotai is vast and the entrance to the Underworld shrouded, and so they will need help from unexpected allies if they are to restore the Moon to the night sky.





	1. Tide Stealer

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by but not identical to the legends of the Polynesian Islands.
> 
> This fic is not totally accurate to the Disney canon, i.e. the junior novelisation.
> 
> Moana and its characters are the property of Disney. This story is non-profit.

Chief Tui had named the island as soon as he had seen it.

Tifaimoana. _Treasure from the Ocean_. Named for both his daughter and the ocean that had brought her safely back to him.

Moana claimed the new land on behalf of her people and began a large settlement there. The coconuts were ready for harvest and the fish were rife around the island, meaning there was no shortage of supplies as she set her best men and women to work. After a short few weeks, they had cleared the trees and erected a new village, docks, and farms. The new sister to Motunui was ready to make its own mark upon the maps and forge its own stories and traditions.

Gramma Tala always said that every island had its own secret, however.

And it was just like Maui to stumble across them.

On the eve of the fourth week since the discovery of Tifaimoana, Maui convinced the new chief out into the dark night. She joined him reluctantly, knowing full well that the tropics awaiting them were still vastly unexplored and likely dangerous, but the other, more adventurous side of the young woman craved the unknown and the mystery she had experienced while out on the open ocean. Her method of ruling didn't exactly feature much sitting and ordering about. She much preferred to be doing things herself, creating, or finding new stories to tell.

Cautiousness swiftly transformed into a vibrant eagerness. Laughing brightly in the light of her torch, she chased Maui through the dark, tropical land as the demi-god used his magical fish hook and his great girth to forge a path through the trees. At first, she barely noticed the chill that cut cleanly across her skin, a chill that should only have existed out on the open waves and not within the warm jungles of the islands.

As the environment became darker and the air colder, Moana ceased running and thought it wise to cease laughing, too, because a sudden and uncomfortable feeling in her gut gave way to the awful sensation of being watched. Not unlike the feeling she had felt in the realm of monsters, Lalotai, the chief fell ill at ease and held her torch aloft in an attempt to shed more light on her surroundings.

She didn't expect to see masks clung to the trees around her. They were certainly nothing like the smooth, wooden tributes to ancestors that her own people carved. The totems and masks of Motunui were crafted beautifully with the best wood, paint, and feathers, but the idols that she had stumbled across here barely seemed to have been forged by human hands at all. They were crudely made and the expressions on their faces ranged from furious to tormented, and glowing paint had been splashed across them in violent clashes of colour.

The trees fell silent. Shadows cast from Moana's flame gave the masks the illusion of life, like they were watching her from their cold, black eyes.

Something brushed against her bare ankle. She shrieked, and then kicked whatever it was with all the strength she could muster.

That _something_ was Maui, having mischievously frightened his friend by nudging his foot against her leg. Adopting a somewhat offended expression, he leant down and rubbed at his freshly assaulted shin, apparently both resentful and amused, given his evident fight to hide a small smile.

“Don't do that!” Moana demanded, placing a hand on her chest as if to still her rapidly beating heart. Regardless of her irritation, she was certainly pleased that the demigod hadn't left her behind to face the suspected dangers here alone. Curiosity swiftly replaced anger, and she gestured almost frantically at the masks placed sporadically around them. “Look! There must be another village hidden on this island somewhere. Do you think they'll accept my people here?”

Maui raised an eyebrow, briefly glancing up at the foreboding ornaments.

“Look, d'you really think they'd hang up things like that as a gesture of welcoming?” the demigod quipped, hoisting his fish hook over his shoulder. “There isn't another village here. I'd know! I scoured this entire island, just like you asked. You guys place your masks around sacred places, right? Well, this isn't any different, only it's not a place sacred to humans.”

Feeling a chill race down her spine, Moana placed her hands on her hips and offered up a glare so ferocious that Maui was forced to back down a little. He held up a hand as if to placate her, but it wasn't quite enough.

“You told me this place was safe!” the chief said loudly, swatting her friend across one of his massive biceps.

“Hey! These things weren't here the day I checked this place out! This is why I brought you here; so we can go in and see what these things are trying to ward us away from! Doncha wanna see, Moana? There could be all kinds of cool stuff lying around!”

Maui excitedly made for the trees and beckoned for the woman to join him. She did so, but only so that she could grab hold of one of his wrists and attempt, in vain, to keep him from running anywhere and doing something potentially disastrous. She should have expected to simply be dragged along through the underbrush, because Maui's strength was legendary and there was little she could do to physically halt him whenever he risked getting himself into trouble.

Holding onto his arm for dear life, Moana managed to tug herself up high enough that she could wrap her arms around her friend's neck and allow him to carry her as he ran. It was something of a preferred method of travel for the two when they weren't on the ocean, though it had taken her some time to become accustomed to it. She did prefer to do things herself, after all, but she knew the man well enough to acknowledge that he often liked to show off just how fast and strong he was.

Maui's great feet pounded across the undergrowth. If there was anything dangerous nearby, it had undoubtedly already heard them.

What they came across, however, wasn't a village, nor a den of demons or monsters. It was a bizarre set-up in a rounded clearing that crowned a cliff-face leading straight down towards the ocean. A tall and jagged rock that sat atop the cliff had a lavishly carven hole cut out of it – one that, Moana suspected, would perfectly encapsulate the Moon when it moved into the correct position.

Around the rock were torches lit with an eerie, purple flame. In front of it, above an ancient stone pedestal, was a smoothly rounded pebble that hovered there as if in wait.

“Maui?” Moana questioned quietly, completely confused by what she was seeing. Quickly thinking back to all the stories and legends she had been told as a child, she couldn't recall any kind of tradition or ritual that looked anything like this. The pebble was hovering above the pedestal as if by magic.

She received no response. Untangling herself from the demigod, she dropped lightly onto her feet and made to approach the strange scene that they had uncovered, only to find one of Maui's arms holding her back.

“Well, this isn't good,” he commented, forcing a jovial tone. “You know what? We should probably head on back before we end up in all kinds of trouble.”

Moana glanced up and inspected her friend. She spied a trace of nerves there in his eyes. It wasn't often that such a thing occurred, and when it did, it was usually because there was a genuine cause for concern. One that he seemed entirely and frustratingly reluctant to talk about.

Though growing increasingly worried, she couldn't help but duck underneath the arm holding her back and march towards the clearing. Grass turned to stone beneath her feet, and as she approached the garish purple light of the torches, it became clear that the stone was carved with pictures and inscriptions, but she couldn't tell what any of them displayed due to the old, worn down nature of the ground. Had they stumbled upon an ancient temple of some sort?

The atmosphere certainly had that kind of feeling to it. Quiet, reverent, and rather daunting. Moana felt small in this place, and she still couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched, even if there was nothing of suspect around.

“Hey!” Maui barked, darting forwards to place a heavy hand on the woman's shoulder. “When I say we should go back, that means we should _really_ go back.”

His tone and expression were sincere. Still, the young chief's curiosity was currently taking precedence, and so she merely shook off his hand and again placed her hands on her hips, perhaps appearing bolder than she truly felt.

“You know what this place is,” she realised, forcing a steady kind of authority into her voice. “Don't you? If it's dangerous, I need to know whether I should remove my people from this island. We'll move on and find somewhere else to build, but only if we have good enough reason to leave and waste all the time we spent making a new village.”

Maui anxiously scratched the back of his head. “Well, uh, I guess. Somebody might turn up who doesn't like me very much. As for your people? I don't think they're in any danger.”

A foul wind blasted suddenly over the edge of the cliff, blowing out all of the torches and pitching them into pure darkness.

“Oh,” Moana heard Maui croak. “Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no -”

The magical fish hook lit itself up with its pure, blue light and allowed the pair to see. Moana turned to see that her demigod companion had temporarily been attempting to hide behind her much slighter frame. Surprised more than anything, she found herself wondering, amongst her fear, just what could terrify an immortal hero to the extent he was nothing short of being scared out of his wits. Maui chewed heavily on his fingernails and turned abruptly at the slightest sounds. The Mini-Maui tattoo on his chest performed in a likewise manner.

A dense, dark fog began rolling in from the sea, crawling over the edge of the cliff like a thousand rotting hands. A stench that smelt like a repugnant mixture of rotting fish and sulphur assaulted Moana's nostrils, but she did her best to remain composed even in the face of this new danger. She had faced the strange and paranormal before, and so this was nothing new. If Maui was scared then she supposed that it would be wiser to be the brave one in the situation at hand.

She squared her shoulders and kept her feet shoulder-width apart, not backing down for a moment. Even when the fog began to gather into a defined mass past the edge of the cliff, she stood solidly, ready to give whatever it was a good telling off for trying to frighten them.

A pair of bright, yellowed eyes formed from the fog. Then came the rest of a giant face, the top half concealed by a silver mask forged in a demonic shape. Moana spied flesh that had apparently spent so long deep beneath the waves that it had turned a dull shade of greyish teal, and barnacles and whatever else had become fused with the enormous countenance presenting itself to them.

The being smiled slightly. Rows upon rows of sharp, shark-like teeth glinted from beneath the shadows of a dark, rotting hood. While it was difficult to see the entity's face, there was no doubt that her enormous size and power suggested that this foul behemoth was indeed some sort of goddess, perhaps one that had become forgotten by mankind over time.

A giant pair of hands splayed nearby, dripping with cold water from the ocean. One was corpse-like and blackened and missing its fingernails. The other wasn't actually a hand at all, upon closer inspection, and appeared something more like a black lobster's claw. The being leaned in and inspected the pair closely, the fingers on her good hand rapping threateningly close by.

Moana dropped down to her knees and showed her respect by lowering her head. Too frightened to move much further, she couldn't even manage to convince Maui to follow suit, instead keeping her gaze fixed upon the monstrous goddess that they had apparently disturbed by coming across the ancient clearing.

“Te Po!” Maui exclaimed suddenly in the manner one might greet an old friend. “Well, it's been a while since I've seen you, buddy! You're looking, uh … _well_. Have you done something new to your face? How're things in Abokas?”

Moana felt her heart sink. It seemed that Te Fiti hadn't been the only deity that Maui had succeeded in insulting, once upon a time. If this was indeed Te Po, a goddess of fire and ruler of the Underworld, then they were in for a whole heap of trouble. While nobody knew much about this goddess in particular, she didn't seem to be quite as benevolent and compassionate as the Mother Island, given the sheer hatred that ignited in her eyes the moment Maui spoke.

“Swell,” Te Po hissed in return, her voice like a cold wind howling down an old cavern. A pair of crab-like antennae sticking out from underneath her mask began flashing red, and Moana was suddenly reminded of the various monsters they had encountered in Lalotai. “I thought you abandoned to the ages, Maui, for stealing that which did not belong to you.”

“He gave the heart back!” Moana cried firmly in defence of her friend, quickly rising to her feet. She somewhat regretted her outburst when the goddess's attentions turned to her, instead, her head tilting in what looked horribly like amusement.

“After a thousand years, this is how mortals speak to their gods? You forget yourselves and your place.”

Moana searched for the signs of a vacant spiral upon the god's chest. What she saw upon the dark exoskeleton that made up her torso, however, was a symbol of an upside-down triangle with wavy lines set above it. No heart shone within the marking, and so she again bowed her head, this time not out of respect but out of pity. Te Po was corrupted and she had been for however long. What did that mean for the ocean and the people that dwelt upon its islands?

“Forgive me,” she said quickly, holding a hand over her heart to demonstrate her sincerity. “The Heart was returned to Te Fiti. I delivered Maui across the ocean myself. A thousand years of solitude was enough punishment for what he did.”

Te Po's slight smile dripped away.

“I was not talking about Te Fiti.”

Confused, Moana looked up at Maui and saw the demigod looked, rather alarmingly, panicked. He was holding his fish hook defensively before his chest. It wasn't like him to be nervous, but then again, he was facing a being likely greater in strength and power, one that he evidently shared a dark history with.

“Let this be known to you, Moana, mankind's ambassador and the Ocean's chosen,” Te Po continued. “A gift cannot be a gift when it was stolen from its true owner. A great comet brought a magical fire to this land, and I learnt to master it. I brought the flames to Abokas, the realm beneath the waves, and gave light to the dead. Since the fire was stolen and dispersed by Maui, my land has been shrouded in darkness.”

Feeling a sharp stab of sympathy, Moana stood and gingerly moved closer to the corrupted entity, assuming a gentle expression that conveyed a willingness to help.

“Can we not give you a flame to take back to your realm?” she asked.

“My dominion over the flame was tarnished the moment this false hero tricked me into relinquishing it. When before I ignited everything I touched, I now drain the life from all. The flame would be extinguished. I slept for a thousand years in wait for this moment, when the Moon is at her largest in the sky and I can more easily drain her powers into a new Heart to bring light to Abokas.”

“Then what happened to _your_ Heart?” Moana managed, her voice small with dread.

“The moment I heard the cries of souls lost in the darkness, it fell from my chest. When it touched the ground, it broke into pieces and its power created Lalotai and all the monsters within it.”

A dark cloud slowly sailing across the tranquil sky moved to display the Moon in all her beauty. Indeed, its face was more enormous than usual, and Moana could make out silvery terrains upon its surface. The pure, blue light lit the sky like a divine torch, and in that moment, the Moon perfectly aligned with the ring carved out of the stone spire nearby.

Te Po raised her hands and laughed. To Moana's horror, light began trickling down from the face of the Moon as if it was being sucked away, stolen by this dark goddess in her state of pure contempt. The light was drawn through the stone ring and into the floating pebble behind it.

Horror-struck, Moana scrambled back towards Maui and grabbed one of his arms, shaking it desperately because she had happened upon the dire realisation that Te Po was quite literally _stealing_ the Moon.

The demigod seemed equally disturbed by the revelation. Still, he did not charge loudly into battle as he usually would have, and merely remained where he was stood without so much as an attempt to convince the goddess not to go through with her plans. That, more than anything, was probably the most terrifying aspect about the situation for poor Moana, who was completely powerless as a torrent of light from the Moon was swiftly drained and collected into the smooth pebble.

The night sky darkened. Little shone on the surface of the ocean, now. Only the stars and their meagre light.

Thinking quickly, Moana decided against seizing the new Heart for herself and instead turned to face Te Po again, running to the edge of the cliff and holding out her hands beseechingly.

“I will bring fire to Abokas!” she proclaimed with vigour. “I will sail the ocean and carry a torch into your realm if you swear to bring the Moon back to the surface! Without the tides, my people's way of life will be ruined. Tell me where the entrance to Abokas is and I promise that I will seek it and give back what was stolen from you.”

Te Po leaned in and captured the Heart of the Moon into a small pendant so that her fingers wouldn't come into contact with it. Her twisted features turned to Moana consideringly, gaze drifting back and forth between the young chief and her demigod companion. Even with her mask, her doubt and distrust were as clear as day. Regardless, she offered another sharp-toothed smirk and leaned away, turning to face the ocean.

“Then act swiftly,” the goddess advised. “The entrance sits in Lalotai.” With that, Te Po began walking into the waters, sinking lower and lower into the waves as the ocean deepened. Her dark, twisted figure was swallowed by the black ocean, and the foul fog rolled back away from the land as her presence diminished.

Stunned by what she had just encountered, Moana brought her arms around her middle and remained there on the cool edge of the cliff, gazing towards the line of the horizon ahead. She knew the stars like the back of her hand, now, and she knew the way to Lalotai. If the ocean was kind and the winds remained at her back, she was confident that she could take fire back to the tormented souls below.

The horizon called to her again. She would heed that call, and she would bring light back to the night sky. She would bring back the tides and currents.

First, however, she stormed back to Maui, grabbed his ear, and yanked firmly on it.

“You were completely useless just then!” she chastised. Knowing full well her tugging wasn't actually doing any damage, she let go of his ear and replaced her attempts to maim with a hard punch to his bicep – which only succeeded in sending a wave of pain through her knuckles. “Ow! I mean – You just stood there and let her steal the Moon! You have your fish hook! Now I have to find my way through a realm of monsters!”

“Hey!” Maui griped back, wounded. “She's a goddess! If I couldn't defeat Te Ka, there's no way I can stop Te Po taking what she wants, is there? Besides, you heard her! She drains the life out of everything she touches! I don't know about you, Curly, but I'm not dying for some giant rock that floats around in the sky, 'kay? Just how are you gonna keep a torch lit all the way to Lalotai, huh? You're gonna be mince meat down there.”

“Probably,” Moana agreed, shoving her hands on her hips and flicking her hair back. “Which is why you're coming with me.”

“Wow. _Wow_. De ja vu! In case you've forgotten, princess, _I'm_ the demigod here, and there's no way I'm gonna let some kid start ordering me around again!”

“In case _you've_ forgotten, Maui, the Moon is integral to the ocean! Fish will start dying out. We won't have enough food to feed everyone. Mortals will die and one day there will be nobody around to tell your stories and cheer whenever you save them from monsters or pull a new island from the waves. So you're coming with me!”

She was right, of course. It wasn't like he actually had a choice. If he was a hero to all, then it meant he had to join her in the realm of monsters. Moana knew well enough that he would detest letting a teenage girl get all the credit.

Moreover, she was completely terrified of the idea of facing monsters and corrupted goddesses alone.

There was goodness in this, however. Once again she could unfurl her sails and venture into the unknown. She might have only been mortal, but that didn't mean she lacked the very same courage and determination that Maui possessed. Her companion seemed more than aware of their oncoming adventure, too, given his sudden self-satisfied smile.

“We were shown the way here,” Moana said confidently, gesturing at their ancient surroundings. “We were meant to be here. This place was a shrine to the Moon and she brought us here.”

Maui nodded. “Yeah, I think so. I met the Moon, occasionally, y'know. She sang songs almost as much as you do.”

Before Moana could ask for that story to be told, there came an odd sound from the trees surrounding them. At first, she thought it was one of the beasts that roamed the tropics, but then she discerned what sounded awfully like chanting. It wasn't a language that she knew, and the way in which the words were growled or howled didn't sound remotely human.

A chill raced across her skin and her hairs stood up on end.

Darkness bloomed near a corrupted god, and that darkness spread like a disease. If Te Po's broken heart had birthed the ocean's monsters, then just what would her corruption bring?

The answer revealed itself in a raucous screeching. The chanting turned to war cries. Small bipedal creatures swarmed out of the shadows of the trees, their claws long and their faces covered by the demonic masks that had once been placed around the forest to protect the entrance to the shrine. The reason Moana had felt like she was being watched the whole time was because that had been the truth all along. These masks, likely created and given life in Abokas or Lalotai, were owned by the minions of Te Po, the creatures born from the darkness and destined to terrorise mankind upon the islands and the ocean.

Hundreds of them scuttled forth, claws swinging and masks glowing. Moana gasped and attempted to dive out of the way when a group of them charged towards her. Before she could land, however, she was scooped out of the air by Maui and carried back to the edge of the cliff, where he stood and held her in one hand and his fish hook in the other.

“Grab hold of my feet,” the demigod said, something entirely crude about his tone. “If you dare!”

With that, he dropped the young chief and she immediately wrapped her arms around his ankles, knowing full well what was coming.

Just as one of the demons took hold of the bottom of her skirt, there came a mighty pulse of power and flash of blue. Maui's enormous hawk form manifested and he took to the skies with powerful beats of his wings. Several of the demons were blown backwards with high-pitched wails, and others stupidly ran straight over the edge of the cliff and into the deep water below.

Moana withheld a shriek as she was pulled high into the air. With a small whimper, she clung tightly onto the great hawk's feet and allowed herself to be dragged out over the churning waters below. When she worked up the courage to open her eyes, she saw the demons continuing to spill over the edge of the cliff and into the ocean until none were left.

She doubted it was a complete resolution. More demons would appear and they would terrorise the island's new villagers.

Worst of all, Moana and Maui wouldn't be there to protect them.

 

 


	2. Seafood Platter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait. Enjoy!

The morning arrived sullenly. The village of Tifaimoana went about its business in a mournful silence, saddened by the loss many of the people had witnessed for themselves. As soon as she had arrived back, Moana had assembled her warriors and set them on guard around the huts to keep an eye out for Te Po's demons, and then she had allowed herself some rest, awaking to a Sun that shone with far less vigour as the skies grieved for its fallen sister.

After dressing, Moana ventured outside of her family's hut and saw her parents stood on the path outside. Both of them were looking towards the ocean. Following their gazes, she was shocked to see that the ocean ahead was so still that it appeared little more than an enormous mirror, perfectly reflecting the clouds and the Sun above. Though beautiful, it didn't look natural. The ocean was supposed to always be moving, always churning, and yet now it appeared alarmingly flat and lifeless.

Her parents turned to look at her. A reluctant acceptance was already manifest upon their faces. Their daughter was the Ocean's chosen, and they knew that she would, alongside their hero Maui, find the Moon and place it back into the skies. Moana tearfully approached and embraced the both of them without a word.

They silently helped her pack food and coconut leaves for the journey. Sina smiled sadly as she closed the baskets containing the supplies. Tui did not smile, but instead watched his daughter with a mixture of pride and an unwillingness to see her go. What choice did any of them have? The oceans were once again cursed and if they couldn't voyage, Moana's journey to Te Fiti would have been all for nought. Tui picked up the baskets and carried them down to the beach where Moana's canoe was being prepared for sailing.

Before they departed, Tui took his daughter aside and gently grasped her hand. Into it, he placed a small slab of pounamu and closed her fingers around it.

Pounamu was a gorgeous green stone used to make hei-tiki carvings of Manaia, the messengers between the world of the living and the dead. Once the stones were carved into the shape of the mysterious creatures, they were supposed to ward away evil and keep spirits at rest. The hei-tiki were true treasures of their people, and it was an honour to be granted a blank slate with which Moana could create her own.

She afforded her parents a final embrace before making for the ocean. The villagers watched fearfully as Maui and Moana unfurled their sail and allowed the breeze to carry them away from the shore.

And that was that. Tifaimoana was behind them, and Lalotai was ahead. There hadn't been time for long farewells, because the longer the tides remained still, the worse things would be for the ocean and the life within it.

The canoe cut cleanly across the glass-like surface of the water, but it did so slowly. Maui had encouraged the wind to blow behind their sail, but when the ocean was so completely still, there were no currents to drift upon, no currents to feel and gauge whether they were actually going the right way. Maui had, thankfully, at least measured the stars early in the morning, and knew the initial direction in which they were headed.

The demigod took over the wayfinding for a while, allowing Moana to sit forlornly on the edge of the canoe and stare into the soulless depths below.

“Ocean?” she said tentatively, guiding a finger into the cool water. A slight ripple across the surface indicated that the spirit was listening. “With only the wind to move us, it's going to take us too long to get to Lalotai. Can we have some help?”

Slowly, a vaguely anthropomorphic shape rose up in front of her. Something was clearly wrong, however, because unlike before, the shape was trembling and clearly struggling to resume its form. Mere seconds later, the shape broke apart into droplets and rained back down onto the ocean's surface. Moana understood, and it broke her heart.

“She's weakened without the Moon. She can't help us,” she said back to Maui, turning to gaze back at Tifaimoana. The island, now a blot on the horizon, had shrunk away far too slowly.

“Ah, great,” Maui muttered back, using the oar to steer them tightly to the east. “There's no waves, no currents, no _nothin'_. I was looking forward to getting back on the ocean, but this? This is boring.”

Moana was still slightly resentful of the fact Maui hadn't attempted to stop Te Po from stealing the Moon, but she could acknowledge how dangerous it would have been for the both of them. They had both seen a vengeful goddess's rage for themselves, and even Maui, with all his might, had not been able to bring her down. Challenging Te Po might have meant certain death. Though devastated, Moana valued the wisdom and experience of her friend and chose not to blame him for what had happened, difficult as it was.

Her gaze drifted thoughtfully down to the tattoo that decorated her friend's navel. It depicted the magical flame of the Underworld and a goddess wielding fire with each of her fingers. She had heard the stories often in her youth, but time often exaggerated and glorified the truth as stories were passed down from generation to generation.

“What do you know about Te Po?” she asked, crossing her legs and leaning forwards with interest.

“Uh,” Maui replied reluctantly. “I mean, not a lot. All I know is that she appeared millennia ago and took the fire from a comet that landed here, like she said. I don't know how she got stuck with _that_ gig – looking after all the souls of people who didn't want to move on. She became infatuated with the Moon, how it shone on the waves. I guess even gods do unwise things when they're in love with a person or an ideal.”

Moana's eyes narrowed. “Did you know what you did by taking that fire?”

“Pfft, kid. What kinda question is that? I saved you humans from the cold nights, that's what. You can cook your food 'cause of me. You can sit around fires and sing those songs that you love so much. Without me, your nights would be a lot darker and more miserable! I painstakingly took that fire from her finger by finger. What, do you need me to tell you that story again?” With a smooth smile, Maui shook his head nonchalantly. “Look at it this way, kiddo. If it wasn't an achievement, I wouldn't have the tattoo. It ain't a case of perspective.”

“Well,” Moana murmured unsurely, running a hand through her hair, “have you thought that your tattoos might not be a reflection of what the _gods_ consider an achievement?”

Maui's slightly obnoxious smirk slid away. It seemed that a long-held notion of his had just been dismantled with a single sentence, but the demigod was as stubborn as they came.

“What, you think the fact I saved mortals from the cold wasn't an achievement? Give me a break, Curly. The gods wouldn't have made me a hero if they didn't want me to challenge nature itself to keep you guys alive. Sometimes, that means taking something and putting it someplace else. You gotta compromise!”

“Maybe you need to look up what compromise means, Maui! It doesn't mean that spirits should be existing in darkness while we have all the fire to ourselves! I know why you did what you did, and I know you brought light into the lives of my people, but now it's time to put things right for all of us. If gods can be unwise in the name of the things they love, then so can demigods.”

She expected her companion to become angry or start sulking, and she hardly would have blamed him, because it couldn't have been easy to hear that some good deeds had been glorified through the ages to the extent that any bad that occurred was lost to the winds. Maui craved the love and admiration of humans, and so he strove to make no mistakes on their behalf, but in doing so, he had only encouraged slips and blunders.

To her surprise, Maui adopted an almost fond expression and expertly held his finger to the wind as he continued gauging the way forwards.

“You're somethin' else, Moana. Every day I find new reason as to why the ocean chose you.”

“Oh,” Moana replied, surprised by the praise. “Oh. Thanks.”

“You're welcome.”

To make up for challenging him, the young chief smiled with equal fondness and leaned in some more to pat one of Maui's strong calves.

“Can you tell me the story again?”

As expected, the demigod's eyes lit up and his posture straightened proudly, his chest puffing with the same cockiness of a cockerel. It was one thing hearing the stories from the village elders, but quite another hearing them from the hero himself, the memories as clear in his mind as they were emblazoned on his skin.

“The entrance to Abokas used to exist in a trench beneath the ocean. As the seasons matured, so did the cold at night. I heard about the flame that a goddess had taken away to the Underworld, so I dived down into the depths and fought all her best minions to gain way. Eventually, I saw it: a fire as big as an entire island! Te Po had stored her power over it away in safe places, or so she thought. Each fingernail of her right hand. I went to her and asked if I could give light and warmth to the mortals, so she gave me one nail.” Clearly relishing the tale, Maui told it as dramatically as one might expect, gesturing vividly with his free hand. “One wasn't enough for me. I went back and told her the ocean extinguished the fire, so she gave me another. I kept on until she only had one left, but she refused, so I turned into a hawk and stole that nail right off her finger! I thought that kind of power was better in the hands of humans, you know?”

“How did you get the flames past the ocean?” Moana asked encouragingly.

Maui suddenly faltered.

“Uh … I turned into a whale and held it in my mouth. Man, did that ever hurt – and it got worse each time! I carried the flames to the surface and that was that. Magic-comet-fire was back where it was meant to be. Ah, I can still hear the crowds cheering now,” the demigod said wistfully. The tattoo of his admirers began reenacting this reverence, silently praising the minute form of Mini-Maui as he proudly held a torch in his tiny hands. The pride on the tiny tattoo's face didn't last, however, as he swiftly glanced unsurely up at his host.

Moana raised an eyebrow, but refrained from pointing out the insecurities she saw. Their time was short, and they wouldn't get to Lalotai by telling stories or bickering.

“That's amazing, Maui, but the story changes a little every time you tell it,” she said with a smirk. Her hand lowered back to the ocean and brushed the cool surface of it. “All right. So, the Ocean is too weak to help us along. Got any ideas?”

“Whale ...” Maui repeated contemplatively. “Hm. Whale! I got it!”

The man grinned from ear to ear and fell backwards off the canoe, plopping into the water with a smooth splash. A blue flash lit up the depths briefly – and then Moana and her boat were suddenly being lifted high into the air! With a squeal of shock, she scrabbled towards the edge and peered down, only to find that a whale had taken the place of her friend and was carrying her on his enormous head. If Maui's strength was great in his human form, it was even greater in that of a whale, and thus his swimming was swift. If Moana looked away from her canoe, it felt for all the world like she was flying.

Her laughter brightened the dull, weakened depths below, if only for a moment.

They continued their journey that way for the rest of the day and night. The hours were bound to pass slowly when Maui was doing all the wayfinding, but Moana measured the stars regardless, lying flat on her back and allowing the clean breeze to pass over her face and through her hair. Without the light of the Moon there to light the sky, the stars were more clear than ever before and she could see ribbons of them stretching out across the darkness.

She had often thought the stars were the souls of those who chose not to reincarnate. Now, however, she knew that those souls lingered down below, devoid of the light that brought joy to the living every single day. The stars would forever be there own mystery, then, and as she contemplated them, her eyes grew heavier and heavier. Only fools succumbed to sleep while finding their way on the open ocean, but it wouldn't matter just this once, would it? Not when Maui was there to fend away the monsters that were said to grow more rife the closer one approached Lalotai's entrance.

She woke up upon an unpleasant sensation of falling.

Pain jolted up her arm and side as she and her canoe landed heavily upon the ocean. It hadn't been a dream, then – Maui had vanished and she had plummeted back down as a result. Furious, Moana clumsily clambered her way back up to her feet and shook a fist blearily at the black water.

“Maui!” she snapped.

There was no response. Suddenly aware of the sheer darkness and silence surrounding her, the chief fumbled around for one of the torches she had stashed away and used kindling to start a small flame to ignite it with. However, given the vastness of the darkness on all sides, the fire hardly helped. All she could see were the stars and her canoe. No demigods.

Listening to her own shaky breathing, Moana cautiously peered into the inky blackness below.

“Maui?” she squeaked, hoping he was playing one of his stupid pranks on her.

Suffice to say she was not expecting what came next.

A gargantuan tail or tentacle unfurled from the water. Scaly, slimy, and glowing all sorts of bright colours as the starlight shone down upon it. Then came another one. And another. Disorientated by the light, it took Moana a moment to realise that Maui was wrapped in one of the coils and doing his best to chew his way out of the muscular limb that ensnared him. Though she could hardly see his face, she observed his eyes actively seeking hers, and when their gazes met, he grinned crookedly.

“ _Ahifatumoana_!” Maui shouted, and then he laughed raucously. “Check out the arms on this thing, kid! Why doncha sit back and relax? I've got this!”

Terrified and near enough helpless, Moana was present enough to be able to shoot her friend a withering glance. What _else_ could she do but sit back and watch as this monster – Ahifatumoana – attempted to cut their mission short? This beast was something of legend, a being born of Lalotai that actively sought to sink any boats that crossed its path, and it was thought banished back to its realm once the Heart of Te Fiti was restored. It seemed, however, that with Te Po's corruption abound, her monsters were free to find their way to the surface world and terrorise it as they willed.

The massive arms, each five times thicker than the hefty Maui, began flashing an angry red. Moana had long since learnt that it tended to be a bad sign whenever monsters or gods started doing that.

A hard thump against the bottom of the canoe sent her tumbling backwards. The torch, held so vigilantly in her hand, was thrown against the sail.

Fire began crawling over the thick material. The young chief watched in despair as her beloved canoe began to succumb to the flames, the sail crafted by her ancestors falling apart as the threads were burnt away.

The sight filled her with more fury than she had ever felt in her life.

Grabbing hold of the torch before it could do any more damage, she jumped into the water, careful to keep the fire lit, and began to swim towards the closest tentacle, intent on maiming it for what it had done to her precious boat. Her people had never suffered monsters and neither would she!

It was not meant to be. Before she had even moved halfway across the expanse between the boat and the flashing arm, a thunderous impact on top of her sent her spinning down into the waters below. It was enough to daze her significantly, but even through the pain ripping through her skull, she could see the monstrous, glowing squid that hung upside-down against the surface of the ocean. Pulled to and fro by the force of its flailing arms, she bounced against one of its giant eyes and turned to see the creature watching her.

It was beautiful, in an odd way. Unearthly. The fins on its mantle glowed with white and blue light, and then a rainbow assortment of colours decorated an exterior that likely appeared drab in daylight. If the monster wasn't the size of an entire village, she might have stopped to look at it longer.

Unable to pause and think, Moana kicked the beast right in the pupil, completely furious. Ahifatumoana recoiled violently and the waters around it churned as a result. Losing her breath, Moana desperately sought the surface and kicked her legs as hard as she could to take a much needed gulp of air. Just as she thought she wasn't going to make it, something slimy wrapped around one of her ankles and yanked her up so hard up beyond the surface that upon release, the poor girl was flung a good distance through the air.

She slammed painfully upon the face of the ocean, and the world fell completely to darkness.

It was only a good few minutes later that her consciousness was restored. Aching all over and disorientated, Moana instinctively began struggling to keep afloat before realising that the Ocean was holding her to the surface. After murmuring a small thanks, she boldly began paddling back towards where she could see her burning canoe being tossed this way and that as monster and demigod collided violently.

Maui was a series of blue flashes, appearing this way and that and in a variety of different forms. Performing a full loop-de-loop as a hawk, he turned back into his usual self and unleashed an ungodly ' _che-hoooooo!_ ' as he lobbed himself full pelt towards one of the tentacles and sliced it cleanly into two flailing bits.

Moana eventually reached her canoe and summoned enough strength to pull it over and douse the burning sail. With a grief-stricken sniff, she hoisted herself up onto the side and remained there, panting with exhaustion. Her head throbbed dully and she closed her eyes tightly in an attempt to banish the pain.

When she opened her eyes, the stars were in a different position. Oh, no. _Idiot_. She had allowed herself to lose consciousness again and thus lose her way. Or had it been the giant squid monster? That had happened, right?

The canoe gently bumped against something in the water and stopped moving. Moana forced herself into a seated position and realised that she hadn't necessarily needed to worry about her location. The Ocean, though weakened, had managed to bring her to the stone spire that served as the entrance to Lalotai. They had never been far away, but she would have preferred arriving unscathed – and where was Maui?

The answer came in a series of rapidly beating wings. The great hawk flew as fast as he could down to the island, swooping in and landing clumsily as he transformed, stumbling down straight onto his face. Unfazed, the demigod raced over to the shore and easily heaved the canoe to the safety of the volcanic mass of the island.

“Moana!” he bleated, kneeling down to gently move some of the young woman's hair out of her face. “I thought I could take that thing before it got to you. I -”

“I'm fine,” Moana said, desiring her tone to be firm, but it was embarrassingly shaky instead. She took a deep, steadying breath and looked reassuringly up at her friend, though was surprised to find immense amounts of guilt pooling in his eyes.

“I thought you were -” Maui began, then paused, taking a short breath of his own before flicking his hair casually back over his shoulders. “Well. That dumb squid won't be bothering us again any time soon. If I wasn't in a hurry, I'd be serving up that arm in a delicious seafood platter. It'd feed your village for months!”

Moana gingerly slid off the edge of the canoe in an attempt to walk straight over to the stone spire, but the floor rudely rose up to meet her face as she fell over. With a bleary frown, she fell limp and allowed her companion to pick her up by the head and set her back on her feet.

“Hey. Hey! Take it slow, will ya? I think you've taken a knock to the head. How'd that happen?”

“Oh, I don't know,” the chief immediately retorted, gesturing frantically back at the ocean. “Maybe the gigantic squid?!”

“Right, right. Sometimes I forget how fragile you humans are. Man, we were lucky we only ran into Ahifatumoana. She's just a juvenile.”

Bewildered by that information, Moana removed Maui's hand from her head and sadly turned back towards her canoe. The small vessel looked more than a little worse for wear, for the sail was in burnt rags and the wood was splintered from various hits taken by the monster's arms. There was no way they would be getting it sailing again, not without a brand new sail and a good deal of care. They weren't going to find either of those things in the realm of monsters.

No. She couldn't allow herself to become sad. This mission wasn't about her. It was about her people and the other islands who needed somebody to venture bravely into the dangerous worlds below. Though she felt she had failed her ancestors by allowing her beautiful canoe to become ruined, she was confident that she could make up for that failure by restoring light to both the living and the dead.

“We have to go. Can you fly us up?” she asked, turning back to the mountainous spire looming high above their heads.

“Well, yeah, but you're hurt. How about we take a break? You know, make a fire, eat some coconut. Seems reasonable, right?”

“We don't have time.” With that, Moana made for the stone and was all set to clamber up it with or without her friend's help. As expected, however, she was once again picked up by the head and placed cautiously back onto the ground by a heedful Maui.

“Stay. _Stay_. That's better. Nothin's gonna happen overnight, Curly. I think we can afford to spend a couple of seconds not charging head first into a giant pit of monsters. I mean, you were actually kinda nervous last time. At least let me feel like _I'm_ the hero here, 'kay?”

Moana pulled a face and sunk down to the sand, folding her arms stubbornly across her chest.

“ _Fine_.”

The coconut leaves in the canoe proved too wet to light, so they laid them and the torches out to dry while they consumed some of the fruit they had brought along. Rendered miserable by all of the recent events, Moana ate silently and then curled up on the sand, braving her way through her monstrous headache. After a while, she managed to sleep and awoke to the beginnings of dawn on the horizon, a soft orange light gracing the ocean and sky.

Maui was fiddling with the canoe, setting it upright and fixing some of the ropes, but there was still no chance of it sailing away from the island.

“Sorry about your boat,” the demigod said upon noting that Moana was awake. He felt some of the burnt cloth hanging uselessly from the wood. “I wanted to give you humans fire as a gift, but fire can be something that takes as much as it gives. Well, whatever. It's not like you can do much damage with it when you're surrounded by endless ocean. How's your head, anyways?”

“Uh, better,” Moana muttered, rubbing at her stinging eyes. Indeed, though she was still sore, she at least felt like she was able to focus. Upon touching the back of her head, she felt a soft, painful lump forming there, and made a mental note not to touch the tender spot again. “Are you all right?”

“Me? I'm great!” Maui boomed, flexing in a self-satisfied manner. “Yeah! Ya messed a heck of a fight back there. I sent that monster fleeing right to the bottom of the ocean! I don't think it'll be messing with me again any time soon. Hey, you ready to take a trip down to Lalotai? I can't wait to kick some more monster butt.”

Obviously thrilled, Maui transformed back into an enormous hawk and took to the sky, swooping about before offering his feet to Moana. She grabbed a torch and kindling, then with a deep breath, she took hold of his ankles and squeezed her eyes shut as her own feet left the ground behind. Though she wasn't a fan of flying, particularly, the journey up to the top of the mountain proved much quicker and easier than climbing it by foot, which had been the case before, when she had been stuck with an unbearable Maui and his gloating.

As soon as she was dropped off onto the side of the peak, Maui vanished upwards and then took an impressive dive-bomb towards the ancient stone door that was sealed shut. Transforming right at the last moment, he flipped and then landed firmly on his feet, triggering the old mechanism that opened the door to reveal the menacing purple glow miles beneath.

With his hand on his hip, the demigod flipped his hair back with a confident smirk and raised an eyebrow at his younger companion.

“Now, I _know_ you're not too chicken. Stay close to me, Curly. I've got no idea what's waiting for us down there.” With that, Maui took a running leap down into the stone maw that had opened the way. “ _Che-hoo!_ ”

With a heavy gulp, Moana took one last look at the horizon. One glance at the too-still water and the dull Sun was enough to give her the courage she needed to dive back into the unknown. Without taking the time to really think about what she was doing, she followed suit and ran towards the hole, jumping into the darkness with the unlit torch held closely to her chest.

 


	3. Let's Talk About Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a reminder that this fic isn't accurate to Disney's canon, more specifically, the junior novelisation.

Moana ran as fast as she could, but no matter how far she went, it only felt like she was going backwards. The horizon, vast and desert-like without a drop of water in sight, stretched on endlessly. Her feet pounded through dry sand and dead or dying fish as she searched for any indication that the ocean was still there, that the spirit was even still alive.

The Sun, in mourning, crept down below the horizon and left the world in eternal darkness. All that could be heard was the terrified wailing of mankind as their beloved divine beings gave up and abandoned them to the sands below. Moana fell to her knees and begged for help, but how could she when it was _her_ who had failed in the mission to retrieve the Moon?

She wept and curled in on herself, hiding her face in her hands.

The darkness suddenly became a whole lot more pungent.

Opening her eyes, her vision was blurred and she struggled to collect her thoughts. Had she been asleep? Had that devastating vision just been a nightmare? Quickly rubbing her eyes, Moana scrambled clumsily up to her feet and quickly realised that whether it had been a nightmare or not, she certainly wasn't out of trouble.

That's right, she had jumped into Lalotai – and then what? Apparently, she had either landed in some kind of enormous plant or it had simply pulled her inside itself. Whatever the case, the girl was enclosed in a kind of leafy orb that was coated with spiny teeth and slimier than any monster she had ever seen. Moana gritted her teeth and tried to pull apart some of the leaves, only to find that they were firmly fused together with the green mucus.

“Maui!” she found herself shouting, pounding her fists on the side of her prison. All she received in return was something that sounded suspiciously like a belch on behalf of the plant attempting to devour her. Furious, Moana glanced over at a set of blue, glowing stamen nearby, and then seized them in her hands to pull with all her might. “Let .. me … go! I am _not_ being eaten by a plant!”

Nothing. Letting go of the stalks, Moana folded her arms and tried to think, looking up to see if there was any sort of opening. There wasn't. All she could see was the reflection of Lalotai's ocean-sky flickering across the leaves. As she paced, her foot nudged something hard that was buried beneath the sludgey liquid that was accumulating across the base of the flower, and so she boldly stooped down to retrieve whatever it was.

Her torch! And beside it was the pouch of tinder she had brought along. The tinder was useless because it was moist, but she wasn't out of ideas just yet. Taking the torch firmly in her hands, she thwacked it hard against the solid leaves imprisoning her.

“Hey! Let me go before I start a fire and find my _own_ way out!”

Trickery was the best thing she could come up with, given the circumstances. Again, nothing happened, and she realised it was probably incredibly foolish to assume that a giant plant could even hear her, let alone understand what she was saying. Then again, this was Lalotai, a place infused with magic and incredibly upside-down in all manner of ways.

Resorting to the next best thing, Moana yelled and cursed and continued bashing the plant with her torch, and then as she became desperate, lobbed the wood aside and used her fists and feet instead.

After what felt like forever, the suffocating fishy stench became somewhat more bearable when a hole was suddenly poked into the top of the bulb-shaped dome she was encased in. Glancing up, she was relieved to see that something enormous had sliced through the leaves and she could see out into the colourful world beyond. It was a relief to see the ocean again, even if it was above her head rather than below it.

It must have been Maui with his fish hook! With a smile, Moana grabbed her torch and kindling and jumped up to grab the edge of the tear that had been pulled out of the plant. Using her own weight, she pulled down the leaves and grimaced as they squelched and flopped down onto the ground like wet tongues.

“Wow, am I glad to see y-” she began.

“ _Where is it?!_ ”

It wasn't Maui.

She would have preferred his sarcastic remarks and gloating over this option, which was arguably much worse.

Terror-struck, Moana remained perfectly still as a gigantic pair of striped antennae wriggled all over her form. They weren't the problem, as such. Rather, it was the creature they were attached to: a being so terrific in size that it was mind-boggling, and, unfortunately, horribly familiar. Attempting to take a step back when giant, bulbous eyes moved inwards to appraise her more closely, she only found herself being picked up by a massive, colourful claw.

“Oh, it's _you_ ,” Tamatoa pointed out, stroking his rubbery chin thoughtfully. “Eurgh! I thought you were one of those pesky little demon things, what with all the screeching. Well, hand it over, or else!”

Bewildered, Moana gaped cluelessly up at the monster, not even bothering to attempt to wiggle out of his hold. The behemoth crab's claws were inescapable, save for when a demigod was around to rescue somebody from being eaten. Unfortunately, Maui was nowhere in sight, though Moana refrained from looking around as not to indicate that she wasn't alone. There was every chance Maui would sneak up on the crab and take him by surprise.

“Hand what over?” Moana enquired as politely as she could. She shuddered when those horrible antennae shifted through her hair and over her face in search of whatever it was the monster was looking for.

“Ooh. What perfume is that?” Tamatoa asked suddenly, quickly becoming distracted.

The awful realisation that he was smelling her with the long, twitchy things on his head made Moana feel rather uncomfortable. Cringing, she grabbed them gently as not to agitate him and held them away from her face, leaning as far back as she could to avoid their wriggly touch.

“It's not … Uh, sea breeze?” she attempted, humouring him to give herself some more time to figure a way out of the situation.

“No, no, I'm just joking. You smell like disgusting plant mucus – in other words, digestive enzyme. Which I just saved you from. So be a babe and give me that treasure you're hiding from me, or else I'll just eat you, mucus and all.”

Treasure? He must have meant the pounamu safely stored in a pocket within her sash. No doubt he wanted it for his collection, hoarder that he was. Moana gulped and glanced at the spectacular shell with which the monster carried his beautiful and shiny collection of treasure.

His shell was bare. In her fear, she hadn't noticed, but Tamatoa's once impressive choice of accessories were all gone, down to the last single golden coin. Save for his natural array of colours and stripes, he appeared, well … rather crab-like and drab, and not entirely like his former self. It showed in the way he carried himself, now, like he feared something was about to leap on him from every side. With a skittish twitch of his eye-stalks, Tamatoa actually appeared somewhat shamefaced during the silence that indicated Moana had noticed he was naked of everything he had boasted about during their last encounter.

“Stop looking!” he demanded, giving her a shake. “You're making me nervous. Just give me back my treasure.” His eyes narrowed dangerously. “Oh, and while you're at it, you can tell me where the _rest_ is. I should have known you would come back to cause trouble down here, you pesky little shrimp.”

“I didn't take it from you! I jumped down here and then – and then that plant tried to eat me! I don't know where your treasure is. If I see any, I'll let you know, I promise!”

“Pfft! And I'm a jellyfish!” Tamatoa scoffed, prodding her accusingly with his free claw. “That means I think you're lying, by the way. Who would want to be a jellyfish? Yeah, you just wanted all my treasure for you and all your horrible little human friends up there. Ugh! What if they're getting their fingerprints over everything? Did you ever stop to think about that?”

“I – I swear I didn't -”

“Oh, whatever. I know who took it. You're just the first person I've seen around capable of communication, so I'm forcing the blame onto you. I'm in a bad place right now. Can't you see?”

With a hard twitch of his antennae that seemed to be the equivalent of a sniff, Tamatoa surprised Moana by lowering her back to the ground and letting her go. The sadness evident on his features was more than obvious, given their sheer size. With a quiet ' _hmmph'_ , the monster lowered down until he was lying on his belly with his myriad of legs splayed in all directions. He began sadly drawing thoughtless shapes into the sand with a claw, his lower lip wibbling dangerously.

Moana was a compassionate person. With much reluctance, she acknowledged that she was actually pitying the creature that had once attempted to devour her whole. She knew, however, never to allow her compassion to give way to stupidity. Pitying an enormous crab that would eat anything put in front of him probably _was_ bordering on the realms of foolishness, and she didn't have the desire or the time to help him, particularly, but his sorrow still tugged at her heart.

With a small sigh, she held out the pounamu stone after retrieving it from her sash. A part of her hoped that its evil-warding power would convince Tamatoa to leave her alone, but no, somehow he was able to reach out and quickly pluck it from her fingers to bring closer to his eye for inspection.

“Hmm! A rarer kind of pounamu! It's shiny, shiny ...” the crab hummed leisurely, hypnotised by the stone's beauty. In an instant, he frowned and shook his head. “It's boring! There's no carvings in it. It's more polite to finish a gift before you give it to someone, isn't it?”

“Well, it wasn't meant for you!” Moana retorted defensively, putting a hand on her hip. “My father gave it to me to carve myself, but I can get more from my island. I'll tell him I gave it to somebody who needed it more.”

Perhaps understandably, Tamatoa seemed more suspicious than anything else. Regardless, he carefully licked the stone and used his saliva to stick it on one of his shoulders, much to Moana's dismay. That certainly wasn't the kind of fate she had wanted for one of her most precious belongings. If there was even the slightest chance it meant he would allow her to leave in one piece, however, then it was a sacrifice she had to make. It wasn't like it was a goddess's Heart this time.

“Are you trying to trick me?” the monster asked, his voice lowering into a threatening growl. “I don't like being tricked. Or deceived. Or mislead, hoodwinked, double-crossed -”

“I'm just being nice,” Moana assured him. It was only a half-lie, because her kindness hadn't only been born out of her desire for survival. It had also been a genuine act of goodwill. She didn't really know why her heart was telling her to show kindness to a predator well over fifty times her size, but Gramma Tala had always told her to listen to her heart as well as her mind. “Hey, I think it suits you!”

Now _that_ was a lie. The green clashed unpleasantly with his shell, and that was what she could see of the tiny stone, given his much larger form. Sometimes lying was for the best, wasn't it?

“Oh, thanks,” the crab muttered in response, assuming the same cheerless tone he had possessed before. He continued drawing shapes in the sand, his antennae drooping until they were flat on the ground. “Maybe I should just eat you to cheer myself up, but I'm too sad to eat. What a viscious cycle.” Tamatoa swallowed thickly, his great eyes welling up with tears. “Do you think it misses me? Or do you think it's found somebody else?”

With an anxious attempt at a smile, Moana leaned forwards and bravely gave his claw a sympathetic pat.

“I'm sure it … misses you a lot. How did you lose it?”

 _Any time now would be great, Maui!_ she thought inwardly, chancing a casual glance behind her. All she could see was a gigantic coral reef lined with conches and oysters. Over her head, sea creatures went about their business. There was no indication that Maui was anywhere nearby and available to save her from the likelihood of being preyed upon by the monster before her. How much longer could she rely on conversation to keep her alive?

“Are you implying that it was _my_ fault it's gone?” Tamatoa snapped savagely. “No! The sky keeps falling open. The ocean was strong enough to destroy my home and force me away to the outskirts of Lalotai. It washed off all of my treasure, and then it got stolen by little demons in masks. I was on my back and helpless,” he reminisced, his face the very picture of torment. “Just like that time you left me on my back and helpless.”

“Er ...” Rubbing at her neck nervously, Moana averted her gaze. “What do you mean the sky keeps falling open?”

As a form of response, Tamatoa reached over and forcibly turned Moana until she was facing the opposite direction. There was something there that she had somehow missed during her brief glance back, or had likely put down to the odd atmosphere of the realm. Miles away, an enormous pillar of water was cascading down from the ocean-sky. Its force was such that mist had formed around the bottom, and clouds were floating about around the torrent. Anything in its path was being destroyed and washed away. And then, just like that, it slowly began to stop, the torrent becoming smaller and smaller until it was like it had never been there in the first place.

Moana turned back and blinked in surprise when she saw that the monster had attempted to retreat inwards towards his shell, his eyes poking out from underneath. It was safe to assume, then, given his anxiety, that ocean falling from the sky wasn't an entirely natural event down in this realm.

“Eugh. Water. I hate water! Especially the takes-you-completely-by-surprise-flood kind,” Tamatoa groaned. “It starts and stops all the time, and you never know where it's gonna turn up next. It's like a _really_ bad rash.”

“But -”

“If you're about to say: 'but you're a crab', I swear I'll put you back in that plant and leave it to turn you into a pile of bones. How about that? Coconut crabs can't breathe in water, just like you humans. Most monsters here can't breathe in water. Shame the entire ocean is deciding to drain away here, right? Wait!” His face reappeared from underneath his shell. “That's why you're here! 'Cause Te Po stole the Moon away to that creepy place full of ghosts!”

Moana nodded. “The ocean has lost its tides and currents. That must be messing with the magic holding it above your realm. I've come to restore the Moon to the above world. That'll save Lalotai, too, so,” she paused, grinning nervously, “don't eat me?”

Tamatoa scratched consideringly at his barnacle-coated chin.

“Hm. You make a compelling argument. For a little shrimp-girl. Ooh! Maybe you and I can come to some sort of … _agreement_. If I show you the way to Te Po, you tell her to make her demons give back my treasure. Or else. Yeah, add that part on the end. _Or else_. Sounds scarier.”

“You really want me to say ' _or else_ ' to a goddess?”

“Yeah! Or else. See?”

Finding amusement creeping in alongside her enormous fear of the monster, Moana relocated her torch and tinder and picked them up, thankful that her and Maui were actually going to have some help finding Abokas. Lalotai was enormous in size, just like its inhabitants, and the entrance to the Underworld could have been literally anywhere.

“What's stopping you from telling her that yourself?” she asked teasingly, though quickly regretted her tone. She wasn't entirely sure how a monster would react to teasing, of all things. Given this one's extremely inflated sense of outward appearance, he probably wouldn't take it well at all. What was so hard about thinking before speaking?!

As expected, Tamatoa's eyes narrowed again as a ghastly scowl moved in to occupy his face.

“Are you insinuating I'm scared of her? If you are ... you are _absolutely_ correct. You know, there's rumours floating around that crabs can't feel pain, but they're all false. Going into Abokas and demanding treasure? I may as well walk myself into the pot of boiling water.” He held out one of his claws expectantly. “Shake on it, babe.”

Moana held onto the tip of his claw and allowed him to shake her hand.

Perhaps it was a mistake, but there was little other choice. Tamatoa had implied that intelligent beings were few and far between in the realm of monsters, and so she was taking the opportunity presented to her because the crab, of all things, was probably one of few with the ability to lead them to Abokas.

The likelihood of him going back on his deal was likely a high probability, but then again, she didn't expect Maui to be particularly complacent, either. She could only hope the two of them would get on for long enough that their mission could be completed.

Moana reluctantly allowed Tamatoa to pick her up again. This time, it wasn't to dangle her threateningly over his mouth, but to place her onto the curved roof of his shell just behind his head.

“Look, if I have to wait for you to walk, I'll die of old age,” he explained off-handedly, beginning to scuttle sideways to an undisclosed location. “I'll even degrade myself by becoming the comic-relief animal companion if it means I get my treasure back.”

It was far easier, admittedly. The monster could easily pass over things that it would take her ten minutes to walk around. In addition, hitching a ride on his back meant there was less of a chance of being hunted by other creatures in the realm. She really didn't want to end up in the maw of a giant lizard or plant again, and she didn't want to be chased by Te Po's masked demons, either.

There was one problem, and a rather large one at that. Where was Maui? Had he been abducted by a monster, or worse – eaten? Frantically considering her friend's potential situation within some giant fiend's stomach, Moana clung tightly onto the rim of Tamatoa's shell and gulped audibly, casting her gaze this way and that. All she could see were the vast reaches of the realm, its massive cliffs and mountains and the bizarre creatures that occupied them.

She noted with much relief that the creatures stayed well away from her, probably because of the enormous claws that her current mount possessed. For all his … charm, Tamatoa was still a monstrous coconut crab, and those creatures in particular were dangerous enough even when they were normal in size. Anybody would have to be a complete idiot to antagonise a monster this large.

After a few minutes silence, Moana awkwardly shifted on the shell of her companion and tried to make out just where they were going and how long it was going to take. It seemed that Tamatoa wasn't going to relinquish the information without being asked, but the thought of striking up conversation with him was as odd as it was terrifying.

Steeling herself, she uttered, “So, um -”

Tamatoa jolted so violently that Moana was flung onto the back of his neck. With a yelp, she grabbed onto one of the spines there before she could slide off and suffer the long fall to the ground.

“Wow. Man, you made me jump. I completely forgot you were on there,” the crab guffawed moronically. “Stop kicking your little legs, it tickles!”

Taking a deep, steadying breath, she pressed her feet against his flesh and pulled herself back up to safety. Now holding one of his eye stalks as if her life depended on it, she refrained from angrily snapping at the idiot creature.

“Where is the entrance?” she asked in a shaky tone, narrowing her eyes and pushing her head forwards a little, trying to see further into the distance.

“What, are you bored of me already? I know, I'm not half as exciting without my treasure, nor as beautiful, but you could at least pretend to be nice.” Before Moana could defend herself, Tamatoa continued, “The entrance only opens when there's a full moon. Problem, right? So we've gotta offer something else to Te Po, something just as worthy of being looked at. I once had one of the shattered pieces of her Heart in my collection before it was taken from me. If we offer it back, she might open the way.”

Despite her fear, Moana couldn't help but be fascinated, too. That the goddess had unwittingly created a realm of monsters with her broken heart was a tale unknown to most humans. She found herself wondering if Te Po had actively stopped herself from putting the pieces of her Heart back together because of the potentially devastating consequences for the strange world beneath the waves. If such was the case, then it seemed the goddess didn't need a stone heart to care for those nobody else would bother caring for.

“Were you created when her Heart shattered?” she asked, gingerly sliding down the creature's neck and pulling herself back up onto his shell. When a single, massive eyeball swivelled around to look at her, she offered yet another smile she hoped was placating in nature.

“Are you just trying to distract me again?” Tamatoa accused slowly. With one eye fixed on where he was going, he used the other to look around and ensure that there was no demigod attempting to creep up on him and lend a few swipes with a magical fish hook. “I'd really like to talk about myself, but I was stuck on my back for weeks after you left, you tiny, malicious little thing.”

Moana managed not to remind him that he had attempted to devour both her and her friend, acknowledging that somebody like Tamatoa was of the opinion he was faultless. Either that, or he simply just felt himself above everybody else.

“I'd love for you to talk about yourself,” she replied. Her attempt to sound enthusiastic was awfully unconvincing, but the monster didn't seem to notice. What she wanted to garner from him was the truth of Lalotai's mysterious beginnings, how something as small as a pebble could create so much, and she hoped she might discern something useful from his egotistical babbling.

Lalotai's colourful and wild environment vanished when Moana found herself suddenly being led into a cavern set amongst the impossibly huge coral reef she had spotted earlier. She instantly became nervous, suspecting treachery, but before she could scramble across Tamatoa's shell and down one of his legs, she was forced to pause as the darkness of the cavern was suddenly illuminated by bioluminescent plants trailing down the walls. Tamatoa himself displayed his terrifying but beautiful glowing patterns, his antennae flashing a bright pink colour, and he used the light to display a certain part of the cavern walls.

Ancient paintings covered it from top to bottom. The artwork reminded Moana of the tattoos her people wore, only far bigger – and these pictures, just like Maui's tattoos, were infused with a magic that allowed them to move at will.

She had never seen anything so extraordinary in her entire life.

A claw directed her to the beginnings of the masterpiece. It was a lonely island set in the middle of the ocean, filled to the brim with life. The patterns moved with vigour, birds flying from trees and fish swimming in the ocean below, and a round orb with feminine features watched over it with a loving smile.

Below the waves, a dark goddess looked up wistfully.

 

“ _At first glance, it was an island that looked like any other_

_Fat chance! The Moon loved this one just like a mother_

_Poor Te Po was another who held relation to the sea_

_Tough, really, 'cause not all love stories are meant to be_

 

_Te Po was the cool dark that hid beneath the waves_

_Talalelei was the light that lit the darkest of caves_

_With all her might, the dark one tried to shine just as bright_

_To try and win the heart of the Mother of the Night_

 

_But the Moon loved her island as she loved the ocean_

_There was no sign that she could see, no notion_

_That the blackness below craved the same tender grace_

_That the humans found in the Moon's lovely face”_

 

Tamatoa sang in time with the movement of the old, mysterious artwork, the pictures slowly painting out the tale that he was telling. Moana watched, completely enraptured, the story of the goddesses tugging at her heart. She had certainly never been told this as a child, and she wondered whether the story had been cast to the sands of time, much like Te Po herself.

 

“ _Sister, did she ever have it hard, and she missed her_

_When the Sun came up and shone – you get the jist, huh?_

_On the day a comet crashed down to the ocean floor_

_Te Po took the fire that would make her lonely no more_

 

_The magical fire flooded through her fingers and her Heart_

_She brought light to the dead and thought it was smart_

_'Cause she loved the spirits like she adored the Moon_

_Just a shame that the fire was stolen way too soon_

 

_Heroes really aren't all that they're cracked up to be_

_Cracked like Te Po's Heart when the dead filled the sea_

_With songs of despair and the salt from their tears_

_Man, and then her corruption broke free of her fears_

 

_The Heart's great power swallowed the island and then_

_Filled it with its fire and increased its size times ten_

_The Moon's precious plants and beasts were pulled below_

_We were all made monsters by the Heart of Te Po"_

 

The last painting showed all kinds of animals and plants being hideously transformed by an almighty burst of power. Upon the breaking of the Heart, corruption seeped into the island and all of its creatures and brought them into the darkness of the deep ocean, creating hateful and dangerous beasts that would torment mankind for centuries to come. It was no wonder that everything in Lalotai was just _wrong –_ because it was born from a curse, and a terrible one at that.

Moana wasn't sure how to feel. Te Po had stolen the Moon away from the sky, but the goddess was so rife with corruption and despair that it was difficult to bear ill will towards her. It wasn't her fault that the absence of light and love had made a monster out of her and the island that had been caught in the disastrous wave of magic caused by the shattered Heart.

Moana had to put things right for the sake of her people and for the sake of Maui, her beloved friend, whose mischief and desire for mankind's love had caused all of this in the first place.

When she saw him, she was going to grab him by the ear and pull him into Abokas herself.

 


	4. He Who Carries the Flame

The supposed location of Te Po's Heart piece was located on the very outskirts of Lalotai. The realm had eventually started to slope just like a sandy beach, and where the ocean would have stretched out before Moana on a normal island, she was instead met with an immense wall of water that surrounded the entire land. It stretched upwards for miles and miles and rounded off into the magical dome that encased Lalotai.

Moana looked up in wonder as sea monsters swam leisurely past, their colourful forms lighting the strange world beyond in an eldritch display. She saw monstrous squid, turtles, manta rays, and even something that looked like a hideous fish with a light attached to a stem on its head. This creature in particular swam slowly past, one enormous, glowing eye latching on to Moana as it did. The fish licked its lips, then vanished into a stream of seaweed so enormous that it looked something more like a forest swirling gently about the ocean.

Speechless, the young chief was certain that she would never forget such a sight for as long as she lived. Her people, save for Gramma Tala, feared speaking of the realm of monsters, but Moana was suddenly determined to change that having seen its incredible beauty and sheer mystery for herself. With an expression of awe, she approached and held out her hands to place them upon the vertical wall of ocean.

“Yes, that's right, stick a finger in and see what happens,” Tamatoa drawled behind her.

The crab was relaxing on his belly and enjoying the largest coconut that Moana had ever seen in her life. She had found it on the ground while exploring the area, and had decided to roll it over to her new guide as a gesture of goodwill despite it being twice her height – and to prevent him from deciding to snack upon her once his hunger overcame his grief. When she turned back to look at him incredulously, she was half amused to find that he was drinking from it with a long, tubular piece of coral as a straw, and using an umbrella shaped fungi as decoration.

“Like, you specifically asked me not to eat you,” he continued, relaxing his head against his free claw. “That's just rude, by the way. Would I tell you what you can and can't eat? Man, you humans eat crabs all the time, but you don't see me making a song and dance about it.” His eyes suddenly perked up, and he slurped on his coconut thoughtfully. “I _could_ , though, if you'd watch.”

Moana quickly darted away from the edge of the water. She had been hypnotised by the beauty of the creatures beyond, which was perhaps their intention, and so she shook herself and retreated to the relative safety of Tamatoa's shadow.

“That sounds … _really_ fun,” she said through her teeth, doing her best to appear encouraging. “Maybe we should do it, er, later! Did you find the Heart piece while I was exploring?”

“Yeah, just thought I'd waste time hanging out here with some human while she rudely offers herself as food to the other monsters. In fact, I had the Heart piece all along!”

“Really?” Moana asked hopefully.

“No! Have you even got a brain in that fluffy little head of yours? Like I was _saying_ before you ran off to play with coconuts, this is where I was carried off to when the sky caved in. This was where I was mobbed and left for dead. _Again.”_ He jibed accusingly. “One of the demons took the Heart piece and carried it off to some … some ...” Tamatoa's voice was suddenly becoming thick with emotion. Every part of him drooped with sadness to the extent it looked like he was melting into the sand.

“Some what?” Moana encouraged with a sigh, gingerly patting the side of his face.

“Some cursed-cursed cave over there,” the crab replied moodily, waving a claw in the general direction of a mountainous region nearby. With dramatic flair, he face-planted the ground out of pure misery, the entirety of it becoming half buried. When he spoke again, his voice was heavily muffled by the white sand, but still he refused to move. “It's probably covered in all kinds of suspicious ooze!”

“Cursed-cursed?” the chief dared ask.

“Lalotai is cursed, but that cave? I took one look and I knew, I just knew that it was even _more_ cursed. Its curses have curses, and there's hexes on top of those. There's only one thing that's frightened me more.” Tamatoa's eyes popped out of the sand. After rapidly blinking grains out of them, he stared intensely at Moana. “Do you want to know what that is?” he rumbled, mystery lacing his tone.

Choosing one of the eyes to look at in case she angered him again, she reluctantly nodded, wishing more than anything that she didn't have to venture inside a cursed cave to retrieve a Heart piece that possibly wasn't even inside any more, having been carried off by a demon or monster enthralled by its power and beauty.

“The time I came across one of my grandma's moults. I thought it was her. I spoke to it for hours, but then she appeared and she was all squishy like a naked barnacle.”

“I -” Moana began, and then thought better of enquiring after the odd explanation. She attempted to begin sidling off towards the rocky area behind her, cutting the conversation short as politely as she possibly could, because time was fleeting and she had to return to the world of humans with a Moon in tow. As amusing as the crab could be, it seemed that immortal beings forgot the essence of time and he seemed more content to talk than actually do anything, mostly about himself and his missing treasure.

Apparently getting the message, Tamatoa stood (leaving behind a rather large, crustacean-shaped crater in the sand) and tossed aside his now empty coconut.

“Let's see, let's see,” he murmured, eyes swivelling about this way and that. “I'm trying to remember, but it's all just one big blur. There was gold, and … gold …” Tamatoa shook his head and scuttled miserably forwards, taking Moana by surprise and picking her up as he went. “Oh, all I can think about is treasure! My golden fleece! My magical lamp, my sunken fleet! My mint condition Hercules figurine! Centuries of collecting all for nothing. If it's all lost, it's going to take me another thousand years to get it all back.”

“Well, at least it'll give you something to do, right?” Moana offered, struggling in the monster's vice-like grip. “Didn't you ever get lonely down here?”

“Lonely?” Tamatoa scoffed, unleashing a sudden burst of laughter that sent Moana's hair flying over her face. “You're a funny little thing. What's your name, again?”

“Moana,” Moana replied, huffing and folding her arms when she realised that the crab wasn't going to let her go until he had either found the cave he was searching for or had finished talking. Neither of which seemed particularly likely, at this point, considering the fact his long-range vision seemed to be terrible given how often he almost bounced off of things. Or was that he was simply more focused on talking than he was searching?

“Really? Oh, actually, it hardly surprises me that the Ocean's Chosen One is literally named _Ocean_. That wasn't really creative of her, was it? Maybe that's why you were chosen – you were a raging do-gooder and you just had the right name at the right time.”

“My grandma named me,” Moana explained, more than a little offended by the implication the Ocean had chosen her because of her _name_. Though frustrated, she slowly looked up at the crab's horribly large face, reluctantly succumbing to her own curiosity. “Did your grandma name you?” she asked, albeit reluctantly, because she knew well enough the fate that had met the no doubt equally monstrous crab that had once lived in Lalotai.

The monster just rolled his eyes dramatically and didn't bother holding back his exasperation.

“Tamatoa's the only coconut crab with a name, babe, and I got it 'cause I earned it. Did you know that most crustaceans can't tell their carapace from their chelipeds? Even stonking great ones like my grandma. Man, it makes a great story, and I really think you'd be interested because of this whole goody-goody quest thing you're doing down here -”

“There!”

Moana became distracted by the sight of a hole on the rocky, uneven ground around them. It really was just that: a hole, a round space of pure nothingness that led into caverns unknown. It was only about the size of her canoe, so there was no chance of her receiving any help that Tamatoa was actually willing to give. Struggling strategically as a non-verbal reminder to her companion that she possessed her own pair of legs, she raced towards the entrance once she was placed onto the ground.

Dropping to her knees beside it, she stared down into the waiting abyss below. The outside seemed perfectly innocent, but when she tried to see into the darkness, a sensation of great foreboding swept across her skin, sending her hairs straight up in an awful chill. There was suddenly no doubt that this was the cursed cave the crab had mentioned minutes ago.

Moana instinctively reached up and held onto her grandma's necklace as if to receive strength from it.

“Hey, can you lower me down?” she asked, forcing her voice to remain stable. Her hands nervously gripped the moist plant that trailed around the circular edge of the cavern, gauging its strength. The stems were feeble, despite their mutated size, so there was little chance of them being used as a rope of sorts. “Gently?”

Tamatoa abruptly turned around and snapped one of his smaller rear pincers. With his eyes poking up over his dome-shamed back, he picked the young woman up by her ankle with it, causing her to shriek with surprise as she was yanked up and swung upside-down by a sharp set of claws. Midway through swinging, she grabbed her torch off the ground and held it fast to her chest, her heart beginning to beat violently as she was dangled over the ominous hole below.

“W-wait!” she cried out, flailing her free leg. “Isn't there a way to beat these demons? There might be an entire colony down there!”

“Oh, er … I would advise that you run. Yes, definitely run as fast as those pathetic appendages will take you.”

And then the darkness swallowed her whole.

It took Moana several moments to realise that it was still dark because her eyes were tightly shut. Behind them, she could distinctly make out some sort of purple light. Squinting very slightly, she allowed herself to look upon the mysterious cavern below and regretted it almost instantly, because what she saw instigated a sudden swooping sensation in her stomach that made her feel quite nauseous.

Though she was being held upside-down, she _wasn't_ upside-down any more, at least not on the terms of whatever physics or magic occupied the spacious cavern. Around her were torches lit with the same strange, purple fire that had occupied the Moon Shrine, and they were burning downwards rather than upwards, the smoke trailing down towards the ground – or what was now technically the ceiling, Moana supposed.

Feeling herself being shifted off to one side, she grabbed hold of one of the torches and held onto it when she was released by Tamatoa's claw. There was no need. Though her hair dangled down towards the darkness below, she was able to walk quite freely about what should have been the cavern ceiling, as if there was some magical force keeping her rooted there. Moana took a few cautious steps forwards, allowing her eyes to adjust to the dark, violet hue that flickered across the rocky walls.

Ancient paintings adorned them, carrying out their stories in a series of moving pictures, just like the ones Tamatoa had shown her before. Whatever tales these were telling, she had no idea, but they seemed to be glorifying various monsters of old and their various feats, much like Maui's tattoos paid tribute to his triumphs.

“Well? Is it in there?” Tamatoa demanded. Moana turned to see that the monster had managed to fit a single eyeball through the entrance hole and was squinting in the darkness impatiently. “I've got one eye on the look-out, but hurry up. If I get pounced on by an army of demons, I'd rather have you up here to throw to them as a distraction while I run away.”

“I'm looking,” Moana responded, still uneasy with her movements as she began searching for the Heart piece. “Hey, Tamatoa? Why can't Te Po use _this_ fire in her realm?”

“Well, it's not fire, is it? It's like a shadow of the fire that used to be here. Or something. You going down there must've woken the magic up. Don't touch it, don't even go near it, right? 'Cause it causes immense sadness in anyone that does. You can't look for treasure while crying, can you?” The crab's eye swivelled about a bit, searching the large space. “Ooh. What's that? It looks like a weird, furry little – oh, it's just you. Well, I don't see much _searching_ going on right now.”

“I'm upside-down!” Moana shot back quickly, though she did begin searching a little harder, inspecting deep crevices in the stone and behind large stalactites. Or were they stalagmites? It was difficult to tell, considering. However, any pebbles that might have occupied the surface would technically be above her, as she seemed to be the only thing exempt from the earth's pull in this cursed cavern. “There's nothing here. I think I need to be, uh … up there?” she said wistfully, gesturing down at the darkness beyond.

“Yes, it seems that way, doesn't it?” Tamatoa offered dryly. “Look, haven't you ever been in a evil cave before? Look for some kind of spell.”

Too fearful to argue the monster's blunt response, Moana immediately set off to inspect the walls and their paintings. None of them displayed any words, save for one, the largest piece towards the narrowest end of the cavern. It was difficult to tell with the lighting, but it seemed to be a stylised image of Te Po, her drooping form transforming endlessly between goddess and corrupted behemoth. Beneath her were the shattered remnants of her Heart, black and pointed, and a spell crudely splashed across them.

 

_A Heart of obsidian is brittle_

_A Heart with little in is crystal_

_Love makes the world go around_

_Love turns the world upside-down_

 

With no other painting offering anything of use, Moana spoke those words aloud. As soon as the final one had passed her lips, a cold and lugubrious breeze rustled her hair and sent the purple flames flickering briefly, like the cave had awoken and breathed a cursed sigh from its depths. Worse, however, was the horribly hollow sensation that opened up within Moana's chest. It was the same emotion she had felt when she lost Gramma tala. An awful, heart-wrenching grief. A deep sadness that would be settled within her for as long as she lived. Affected by the emotional pain, she blinked back the tears that sprung to her eyes and was too numb to truly acknowledge the fact her feet were no longer touching anything remotely solid.

Before she lost the opportunity, she grabbed one of the torches from the wall as the magic righted all the wrongs and carried her slowly downwards through the shadows. Before long, she was the right way up and could feel the crunch of small stones beneath her feet.

 _Obsidian._ Te Po's Heart was of obsidian, precious volcanic glass, just like Te Fiti's was made from pounamu.

Gritting her teeth, Moana managed to temporarily push away the near crippling surges of sorrow coiling tightly within her throat and chest. With a hard, painful swallow, she held the shadow-fire aloft and began scouring the ground for any sign of an obsidian shard. For several minutes she searched and searched, wiping the occasional tear from her cheek. As she began to lose hope, she tried to find some comfort in the mindless babbling she could just about hear over her head courtesy of the monstrous crab lingering in wait.

And then she heard it.

A faint but steady throbbing. A heartbeat.

Sullenly picking up the pace, Moana waved the torch this way and that until she located a harsh dip in the stone that was almost crater-like in appearance. The ground surrounding it was oddly scorched, like lightning had struck there long ago, but how could lightning reach so far into a cave?

The answer suddenly seemed obvious. The paintings, the hexes, and now this burnt crater – was this where Te Po's Heart had shattered? Was this cavern the birthplace of the power that sank the once pleasant island of Lalotai and turned it into a realm of corruption? The terrible things she was feeling began to make sense, and it was terrifying to think that the old, cursed magic occupying the place was the remnant's of a goddess's heartbreak.

Terrifying, yes, but Moana felt a deep sadness, too, and not just because of the shadow-fire. She felt for Te Po, and she felt guilty for judging Lalotai for what it seemed on the surface. Even the darkest of hearts could have some good in them, couldn't they? Through the corruption, the goddess and her monsters were still _beings_. Misguided and often wicked beings, of course, but by treating them as mindless beasts to be feared, perhaps the humans had made their own mistakes, too.

The young chief slid down the side of the crater and gently picked up the weakly pulsing shard of obsidian located in its centre. Whatever demon had stolen it from Tamatoa had obviously sought to put it back.

Then maybe it was where Te Po wanted it to be. Forgotten, but safe.

Maybe the goddess didn't want her Heart back.

After some deliberation, Moana stooped down and placed the shard exactly where she had found it. She couldn't take the shard away, but she could take something else: a better understanding of the mysterious entity they were up against. Perhaps _that_ was the most important thing of all.

Her thoughts were interrupted by an odd clacking sound. Holding up the torch, the violet light illuminated a dark, inhuman figure balanced on the side of the crater, and lit the bioluminescent paint that decorated the creature's wooden mask.

Moana's heart began racing with fear. Either she had woken the demon or it had been watching and waiting the entire time. Whatever the case, the manner in which it brandished its long, finger-like claws suggested that she wasn't going to be met with any mercy.

“I'm not taking it,” she insisted, pointing down at the broken Heart piece. “I'm leaving it here. I promise. That's what she wants, right?”

If the demon could understand her, it made no indication of it. The mask tilted as the creature tilted its head. The clacking and gibbering continued as it responded to her voice, and it adjusted its legs in preparation to pounce.

Moana made a sound of dismay and immediately scurried up the other side of the crater as quickly as humanely possible. She shouted the spell on the wall in an effort to reverse it and be sent floating upwards towards the hole in the ceiling, but to her horror, nothing happened. Was there another spell she had to use? If so, there was little chance of her actually finding it before being leapt upon by the monstrous little creature squawking behind her.

“Maui!” she yelled out of desperation. Panting, she sprinted past a moss-coated boulder and then circled around it, hoping to give herself an extra couple of seconds. However, when she glanced up, the demon was perched on top of the boulder and lashing out with its awful claws. “Agh! Get off of me!” she shrieked as the sharp appendages snagged in her hair. Solid rock met her skull firmly as she was pulled backwards. “Tamatoa!”

Crying out, she slammed the base of her torch into the demon's hand and forced it to let go. Following a pained howl, the demon simply dove down and grabbed her by the ankle, this time, sending the young woman flying down onto her front with a hard _oomph_.

The claws raked into her skin. In any other situation, she might have been able to acknowledge the pain, but as it was, she was simply too terrified. Spinning onto her back, she kicked her legs wildly in an attempt to fend the monster off. With the torch now forgotten off to one side, everything was a blur of feet, fists, and claws as Moana fought desperately to save herself.

The scuffle didn't last long. When an almighty quake shook the walls for a short time, the demon stopped lunging for Moana and instead glanced upwards at where the concurrent _boom_ had occurred. Bits of rock trickled down the walls and disturbed the silence that followed.

They were followed by larger chunks of rock, and then larger still as something assaulted the earth over their heads. When actual parts of the ceiling began cracking and caving in, that was Moana's cue to run to safety.

Or try to, at least. No sooner as she had started scrambling up to her feet, sunlight burst through the holes in the ceiling and then she was airborne. Her presumption was that it was Maui in his hawk form carrying her to safety, and she even went as far as to cry out his name in pure relief as the darkness and curses that had contained her were rapidly left behind and obliterated with chunks of falling rock.

There would be no chance of recovering the Heart piece, now, and that was probably for the best.

“What did you just call me?” came a most offended voice. Moana opened one of her eyes and nervously peered out at her surroundings. Lalotai. She never would have thought it would come as a _relief_ to see the realm. Now? She could appreciate the bright colours and oddities for what they were.

“Uh ...” the young chief managed, coming to the realisation that it was Tamatoa holding her by the back of her garment. Despite all she had just encountered, she was able to produce a sheepish grin as she came face to face with a rather disgruntled looking crab-monster. “Maui?”

“That's the worst thing you've ever said,” Tamatoa responded snidely, jabbing at her with his free claw. “How could you – Oh, _eurgh_ , what's that on your face? You're leaking from your eye-holes. Is that what crying looks like? Oh, yuck, it's all coming out of your nose, too!”

Moana rubbed her face with a shaking hand. Indeed, it came away moist with tears.

She tried to hold it in. She really did. However, the heartbreak she had felt down in that cave – and then being pursued by a terrifying demon with enormous claws – well, even with her steely resolve, she couldn't hold in the sudden flood of tears that suddenly began erupting from her. Shaking and fearful, she covered her eyes and sobbed violently.

With the torch now on the ground and snuffed out by the sand, the shadow-fire was gone. The cursed cave was destroyed. The pain in her heart was fading, but there a piece of it would always remain. At the very least, there was one person in the world who knew of Te Po's immense capacity for love and loss.

“Why are you making funny noises?” Tamatoa asked, sounding genuinely perplexed. Moana would have laughed it she wasn't so traumatised by all that had happened. “Stop it at once, you, or I'll … Or else!” He paused and gave her a tiny shake, and then added in an even tinier voice, “Please?”

“Y-you helped me,” Moana blubbed, rubbing her eyes in an attempt to stem the flow of tears. “Th-thank you.”

“I didn't. I was just – Oh, wait, I did.” Apparently not liking the thought of _helping_ somebody, Tamatoa quivered his eye-stalks in distaste. “No, no, I was just helping myself, you see, because you can't get my treasure back if you're dead, and I don't have time to wait for another stupid human to plop down from some stinky island.” The crab lowered his antennae and began wiggling them over Moana searchingly. “Where is it? Where's the Heart piece?”

Despite herself, the girl laughed and attempted to swat the antennae away.

“I think I found something better.”

 

* * *

 

Later that day, after she had gotten over the violent and emotional incident in the cavern, Moana travelled a little further with her companion before setting up camp. They found a shattered, curved piece of coral that was so enormous it encompassed even Tamatoa quite easily and provided shelter for them both. Though weather wasn't exactly an issue in this realm, hungry monsters were.

She set up a fire with her kindling and left for a while to pick some berries to eat. Picking berries in Lalotai was far more difficult than in the above-world, mostly because all of them were the same size as her head and required enormous bursts of strength on her part. Taking two back to their camp, she walked around Tamatoa's massive form and was surprised to find him caught in an enraptured silence.

The fire she had lit, once a warm, glowing orange, was now tainted with shadow, purple and black and as ominous as the flames she had found in the Heart cave. Instinct told her to hang back and avoid the purple fire, and so she did so, not allowing herself to get close enough to become affected by its power. Guilt told her to help the monster that was staring into it as if it was talking to him, because he looked as sad as a crab could possibly look.

“Are you missing your treasure?” Moana asked, gingerly lowering herself and her berries to the sandy ground. With a cautious glance directed at the vibrant pink fruit, she picked a bit of flesh away from one and tasted it, finding it good enough to eat.

“Of course I am,” Tamatoa responded morosely, lowering his head onto one of his claws. “Look at this, shrimp-girl; the fire went out and then this shadow-fire appeared, but I can't bring myself to put it out. It's like I want to feel awful.”

“My grandma would say that there's something on your mind,” Moana pushed casually, inwardly hoping that the cursed fire would help her better understand the monster, too. She didn't entirely enjoy subjecting anything to misery, of course, but for the sake of working with him for the greater good, perhaps it was for the best, because there was little chance of him sharing his woes with her otherwise.

Tamatoa sighed so heavily that the stringy plants hanging from the ceiling of their shelter wafted.

“I feel suddenly compelled to say that you were right earlier. It gets lonely down here. So painfully, _horribly_ lonely. There used to be lots of coconut crabs like me, but I was the only one who could think and speak like a human. Same goes for all the monsters down here. You've held the longest conversations with me I've had for hundreds of years.”

“What happened to your family?” Moana asked, knowing full well the answer probably wasn't going to be pleasant.

“Crabs don't have families, you silly little barnacle. They only communicated to hunt each other or make eggs. My mum ate my dad when I was four hours old. It's all right for you humans, isn't it? You have people who love you just because you exist. Well, everybody hates me because I exist, 'cause I'm just some giant, ugly crustacean. An giant, ugly crustacean with fabulous taste.” With another, withering sigh, Tamatoa shrunk into his shell miserably. “I suppose you're going to leave once you get your precious Moon back,” he muttered, rolling his eyes.

“I have to because my people are up there, but you'll have your treasure,” Moana reminded him.

“Well, yes, but … I don't think being stunningly beautiful feels quite the same as having M-” The crab suddenly covered his mouth with his claw and cringed. “Urgh. I meant – It's not the same as, well, other things.”

Ah. Maui. It hardly surprised Moana that the demi-god was apparently a source of the sorrow and frustration that haunted the deepest recesses of Tamatoa's mind. Hadn't the two of them actually been friends, once? Whatever had caused the penultimate fight between them must have been something truly terrible, for it had resulted in the crab losing one of his legs and Maui boasting much resentment.

Moana chewed on her curiosity for a short time, knowing it was probably better to keep it to herself, but the desire for the truth simply became too great.

“You two could be friends again, you know. You could just pretend like nothing ever happened, and it'll be fine,” she insisted. “You must miss having him around, right?”

“I _suppose_ ,” Tamatoa relinquished, growing more miserable each passing second. “Do you know what caused our battle? A coconut. That's right. One dropped on his head and he thought I threw it at him. Granted, there was a lot of stuff before that which kinda caused some tension, but it all came down to a coconut that one day. I lost a leg and he got a cool tattoo. It's so not fair. Do you want to hear the real stinker, though?”

Moana nodded, unable to speak through her mouthful of berry.

“That dumb mini-god made me feel like I was nothing.”

Not having expected such an emotional admittance, Moana swallowed her food and then remained silent, a pang of disquiet arising suddenly within her. She knew well enough that her friend had done things that he wasn't proud of, and that he possessed an infamous penchant for mischief, but just how far had he gone in the past? Were there things he had done that she didn't know about?

“He came to Lalotai all the time when it was an island on the ocean,” Tamatoa explained. “I knew him when I was a tiny little hermit crab. He helped me find shells until I grew up and didn't need them, so I helped him by showing him the secret entrance to Abokas, a tunnel that opened every full moon. That's right, the same one we're travelling to! He used that tunnel to steal the fire from Te Po, and guess what? When he took her last nail, she caught him on the wing with her power and sent the guy tumbling. I picked up his fish hook and carried the fire out. That's how I got my name, but Maui never told the story with me in it.”

Stunned, Moana's face fell. “You helped him bring fire to mankind?”

“Yes, now don't make me say it again, it makes me feel like pummelling something! He said he couldn't tell anyone because humans had a thing against crabs. For the first two-hundred years, I didn't mind, but then he told me about what his mother did to him and I laughed 'cause a part of me hated him for being so popular. Like ten minutes after that, a coconut fell on his head and sort of, erm, escalated the situation.”

In silence, Moana stood up again and located one of the enormous leaves she had dragged in to make a bed with. Using its great weight, she dropped it on top of the shadow-fire and extinguished the flame to end the pain it was causing her companion. She herself felt numb with shock and disappointment, but a part of her was glad she knew, because now she understood Tamatoa and she knew Maui a little better, too.

It seemed the line between hero and villain was becoming more and more blurred. Perhaps there wasn't actually a line at all, and heroes and villains were just people.

That night, Moana slept uneasily, and oddly, it wasn't because of the monster sleeping nearby.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maui returns soon. :)
> 
> Any Tumblr folks about? Follow me at thornvale.tumblr.com.


	5. The Sky Falls

When Maui was on the cusp of manhood, each of the gods bestowed upon him some sort of gift as a mark of his journey to adulthood.

He was to be a hero, they told him. He was to venture the seas and aid mankind, but there was little he could do with his small, human body as it was.

Te Fiti gave him his weapon, the magical fish hook that enabled him to shapeshift into any creature he could put his mind to, or to pull islands up from the ocean floor.

Te Po gave him the magical tattoos that would mark every achievement of his.

Oro'a, the god of war, gave Maui his immense strength.

The lord of the skies, To Whiri, enabled Maui to exhale great gusts of wind from his lungs.

Te Roa, lady of the Ocean, gave him his glittering smile, and the Sun gave him his charm.

The only deity absent from the ceremony was Talalelei, the Moon herself, and the young demigod was saddened by her apparent lack of consideration. The other gods had all given him gifts, things that would better enable him to further both himself and mankind - so where was her gift? Surely there was _something_ that she could have given him, even if it was something small! But no, she spent all her days either sleeping within the night skies or wandering her precious island, Lalotai.

What about a glorified hunk of rock could be better than Maui?

Sadness and jealousy turned to anger. Enraged by the Moon's slight, Maui flew to Lalotai in the form of a powerful hawk. In his upset, he took his great fish hook and cut a boulder clean in two, attempting to summon the wrath of the goddess.

There came no storms, no lightning, no sign of any distress on Talalelei's behalf. Once Maui was calmer and sat sulking on the white sand of Lalotai's shore, she appeared to him, taking the form of a lady adorned in black and silver cloth. Her hair was crowned with orchids and she wore jewellery composed of shimmering, grey stone. Set into her chest was her Heart, currently marked with a shadow that shaped it into a crescent, because that was the very shape that hung over their heads in the bright, evening sky.

“Don't you care about me?” Maui asked stubbornly, abruptly turning his gaze back to the ocean. “You don't help me. You just hang out here all the time! Man, no wonder the nights feel so … I dunno. They just feel so empty!”

Talalelei wondered forwards, her bare feet barely touching the sand below. She touched Maui's shoulder with a small hand and stood beside him.

“Even with the Moon and the stars guiding your way forwards?” she asked quietly.

“Yeah. Especially then.”

“I have been with you since you were cast into the Ocean, Maui. I see everything that my light touches. I suspect that your days feel empty, too, and your meals and your tasks across the waves. It's only when the world falls silent that it's easier to see how alone you really are.”

Stunned, Maui turned and gaped at the goddess, at first forcing an expression of incredulity, but then miserably accepting that she was, of course, completely correct, because the Moon saw all and it seemed she could see right through him, too.

“Gee, thanks,” he managed to retort, huffing and folding his great arms. “Y'know, the other gods were a whole lot nicer about me becoming an adult.”

Talalelei smiled warmly. Her hand moving away from the demigod's shoulder, she instead offered it to him as a gesture for him to get up. Despite his various grievances, the man knew better than to reject her offer, especially given the lady's small smile. Her expression was always so loving and caring, almost motherly, and he had come to be fond of her in the few times they had actually met face to face, which is why it had hurt such a great deal when she had made herself exempt from the celebration of his ascension to manhood.

Grasping her hand, Maui huffed again and forced himself upright, allowing Talalelei to guide him along the beach. He wore an expression of pure distaste, though in reality, he was curious as to what she had planned for him, whether now or in the future.

“Would you like to know why I spend my days here, Maui?” she asked pleasantly, her sweet face turning to smile up at his.

The demigod instantly felt all of his rage begin to diminish. It was the calming serenity of the Moon he could see shining plainly in her eyes, but also served to remind him of the nights he sat alone on his canoe, gazing up at the white blankness of the stars and silently wishing that he didn't feel so alienated from both gods and humans alike. He was, of course, neither one or the other, and there was nobody else who could understand.

Maui nodded sullenly.

“This island has a secret, child, a path to those lost to mankind, and I intend on protecting it for as long as this island exists. During my watch, I have come to love this island, each curve and hill and all of the creatures that walk upon it. You and this place are fated, and there will come a day you will make great changes to the lives of others while stood upon this soil. I am certain of it. The kind of changes you make, however … My vision becomes clouded when I try to look forwards.” Talalelei's smile drifted away. “I do have a gift for you, Maui, but it wasn't quite ready until just now.”

The goddess stopped walking, and Maui quickly followed suit, glancing down when his companion gestured to do so. From the gentle waves, several tiny hermit crabs were wandering over the wet sand. They were so small that Maui wouldn't have noticed them unless directed, and each of them were carrying shells of various sizes, scuttling nervously away from his feet. One of them, however, seemed a bit bolder, and scuttled over to peer up at the demigod with two beady little eyes.

Talalelei knelt down momentarily and scooped the brazen little crab up into her hand, rising to show it to Maui, who was instantly confused.

“Uh ...” he began, unsure as to whether he was supposed to accept the creature as a gift or if it was some kind of metaphor the goddess was trying to convey. Clearing his throat, he held out one enormous finger and allowed the crab to scuttle into the palm of his hand. While he was certain this was just another icky, dumb crab, he didn't quite like the way the creature continued to fixate upon him as if there was something going on in its tiny little mind.

“Your loneliness was to be expected, Maui. It is natural and felt in the hearts of all people at one point or another. Lower your armour and sometimes you will find friends in places you least expect it.” Talalelei smiled again, opening her arms wide. “Nobody can perform great deeds alone. My gift to you both is one like you. One who will understand.”

“Us both?” Maui pressed, pointing at the creature sat in his palm. “This is just … It's just a dumb crab!”

“The Ocean seeks worthiness in all hearts, Maui.” The goddess explained. If she was aiming to confuse him further, she was succeeding. “Worthiness is kindness. It is boldness. It is treasuring that which matters most. Such things, however … They can become corrupted, and the most worthy can become the most wicked.”

The lady lowered her head towards Maui, then continued walking along the beach alone, humming a small tune to herself. As she walked, her form shimmered and sparkled and swiftly dispersed into nothingness, leaving the demigod alone on the shore – or so he thought. The Moon was never really gone, of course. It was just that it couldn't always be seen.

The hermit crab clicked its pincers and blinked up at Maui as if equally confused by what had just transpired. Had the goddess implied that this little animal, this horrible crab, had actually been touched by the gods like he had? And that she wanted him to be friends with the creepy little thing? Wasn't a guy like him more likely to eat a crustacean than try to be friends with it?

Maui hated the idea. He hated the thought that he wasn't the only special one. He hated that his friends had to be chosen for him lest he wander off the correct path or whatever the heck the Moon goddess had said. What he hated the most, however, was the fact no matter how many months he left Lalotai behind, he kept going back.

He hated that his initial contempt for something smaller and uglier than himself had made him so much like his own mother.

Every time he flew back to the island, he brought with him a new shell. The final time, it was a conch shell that sparkled a pretty pink and was remarkably elaborate, and though the crab had turned out to be much larger than he'd expected that particular visit, the creature still adored it and carried it painstakingly to its den like it was the most precious object on Earth.

There was a dark side to friendship, however, just as there was a dark side to the Moon. As the millennia flew by, the ideals that made one worthy began to falter and crumble, forgotten to time. Compliments turned to jibes, compassion turned to jealousy, and an intense love and fondness turned to such hatred that friendship was forced to violently part ways.

The gods could often forget the downsides to their interventions, after all, and that the hearts of men were not of stone but of feelings as tumultuous as the wind and sea.

 

* * *

 

“So, I guess you're just gonna rock on up to the entrance of the Underworld and flutter those eyelashes until Te Po lets you in, eh? Ugh, never send a human to do a monster's job!”

Moana sighed. Having suffered a terrible night's sleep due to her concerns and the sound of the monstrous wilderness, she was busy trying not to fall asleep on the back of Tamatoa's shell as he carried her over the wild, colourful planes of Lalotai. What made it significantly easier was the fact the crab was evidently eager to be having a conversation (which had become rather one-sided within the past few minutes), and refused to stay silent long enough for her to drift off and potentially find herself in danger.

“Yes, yes, I know I got you to go into that cave, but I was a bit too big for that. Also, it was dark and a bit scary, honestly speaking. I mean, there's a reason you're the Ocean's chosen, right? That means you've gotta do stuff that ginormous crabs like me can't. I kind of expected you'd come out of there with the Heart piece but now it's buried under tons of rubble. Ugh, what a waste! How are we going to get you into Abokas, now? Are you even listening to me? You're not, are you? Man, if only I'd ignored you, too, while you were busy being killed in that cave back there -”

“I'm listening!” Moana insisted, firmly patting the hard shell beneath her as extra indication that she was indeed paying some sort of attention. Admittedly, her thoughts had been starting to venture off. “You won't give me a chance to respond!”

“Well then, _Moan_ -ana,” Tamatoa said, then paused to give time for his little joke to sink in. “How're you going to get the door to the Underworld to open? Are you going to flutter your eyelashes and hope for the best? Oh – wait, I just used that one -”

“I'll get it to open,” the girl retorted semi-confidently, setting her determined gaze upon the tropics before her. “First, though … Well, we're probably going to need Maui's help.”

Tamatoa stopped walking so suddenly that Moana was almost flung clean off his shell. She managed to save herself by clinging on to the edge and hooking her way back up with her foot. Upon pushing errant strands of hair back over her head, she found the monster's hard, suspicious eyes upon her, twisted backwards and glaring with all the menace that he could summon.

“Excuse me? Are my ears filled with sand or did you just say that we need Maui's help?”

Moana offered a weak smile and patted her companion's shell again in a placating manner. She had expected the reaction, though there had been no use in beating about the bush any longer. She had to find Maui because at this point, she was really starting to worry about the trouble he had evidently found himself in.

Before she could think of anything remotely intelligent to respond with, she found herself muttering the words, “You have … ears?” before quickly covering her mouth with her hand.

Tamatoa's eyes narrowed accusingly.

“ _Yes_ , and I don't like what they just heard. Anything Maui can do, _I_ can do. I'm super strong, super fast, and I look cooler than him, too – or at least, I will when we get my treasure back. What's your problem, babe? Our little agreement has been working out quite well, hasn't it? I mean, I haven't eaten you yet. Doesn't that count for anything?” he asked in a tone of voice that almost sounded hurt.

Moana nervously wrung her hands and swiftly nodded, pretending to be highly grateful that Tamatoa hadn't tried to eat her before realising that she actually _was_ grateful, because that certainly would have made her journey a whole lot more difficult. Not that the monster deserved her gratitude for that, particularly, though he had succeeded in saving her life twice, even if the first time was unintentional. With another sigh, Moana stood and looked Tamatoa in the eye.

“Look, you've been really helpful, I promise,” she said firmly, “but three heads are better than two. If Maui comes with me into the Underworld, there's more chance of us coming back out again. I know you guys had an argument but you can both put that aside for now, right? At least until the Moon's back in the sky and Lalotai's no longer in danger of being flooded by the Ocean?”

Tamatoa's eyes narrowed even more.

“You make a compelling argument. I hate everything about it.”

Breathing a sigh of relief, Moana managed a smile that came easier than the first, and she leaned forwards to stroke the side of the crab's enormous eye. Tamatoa seemed briefly confused by the affectionate gesture, though didn't act repulsed by it as he might have earlier during their time together.

“I don't suppose you have any idea where he'd be, do you?” Moana enquired politely, doing her utmost to soften the monster's heart and win him over entirely. “You do know this place far better than either of us, after all.”

“Argh, fine!” Tamatoa boomed, and he furiously began scuttling in a completely different direction. “I suppose I have an idea, you pesky little ...” Silencing himself, he headed towards a forest of impossibly huge trees that loomed in the distance.

The tropics therein were shadowed by these gargantuan trees. The earthy area was cast into near pitch black, as the trunks to one of the trees alone could have encompassed the entirety of the volcanic spire that led down into Lalotai, and the only light within the foreboding darkness were bioluminescent vines that clung to the sides of rocky outcrops and boulders. They shone in all different colours, some of them changing hues as the seconds passed.

The screeches of monsters echoed through the canopy. Insects the size of Moana herself buzzed about their business, some of them glowing, others hidden in the darkness. Fazed by the change in atmosphere, Moana wrapped her arms around her body and hunched over, keeping as low to Tamatoa's shell as she possibly could to avoid being detected by whatever monstrosities lingered nearby. Whatever was thrown her way, however, she would endure it whole-heartedly if it meant getting her friend back.

Fortunately, the forest opened up to a clearing dimly lit by the ocean sky. There were also torches around burning with that dreaded shadow-fire, but thankfully they were too far away to feel its effects. Something far more terrifying grabbed Moana's attention. _Demons_. There had to be about thirty of them, all of them endowed with glowing masks, and all of them carried torches or spears. They had their backs turned, facing a pile of sticks and dead leaves.

Above this pile was Maui, tied to a spit roast and looking bored out of his wits as he was slowly turned around and around by a pair of demons. No matter how many times the kindling beneath him was lit with purple fire, he blew it out every time with his mighty breath, scattering the lighter demons and leaving them highly confused and angered.

Moana was so happy to see him that she almost laughed out loud, barely managing to swallow it back. Maui was alive! She had so feared he had perished because of this mission, but perhaps that had been a foolish thing to think. He was _Maui_. Even without his magical fish hook, he was a force to be reckoned with.

To her surprise, Tamatoa lowered down and shrunk back into the shadows.

“What're you doing?” she asked, trying not to sound too pushy, but her patience was wearing thin because Maui was so close. She slid eagerly off the monster's back and gave him an encouraging look. “They're no match for you. You could just run over there and -”

“Hey, shh-shh!” Tamatoa hissed angrily. “The demons are tiny, yes, but Maui will happily slice off another one of my legs! I suppose _you_ don't have to worry about being turned into a crab sandwich every five minutes.”

Moana turned back to face the scene, hiding behind a particularly large tuft of grass.

“Looks like his fish hook's missing,” she surmised. “You'll be fine. I'll explain to him that we're working together before he tries anything. We've got no choice but to head in there.” Glancing back up at her companion, she waved at him to catch his attention. “Hey! It's gonna be fine! You've got the upper hand.” She paused briefly. “Uh, I'm really glad you're here, okay?”

Tamatoa's eyes swivelled down towards her in shock, eventually followed by his entire head.

“What was that last part?”

“Um ...” Moana quickly directed her attention back towards the gathering of demons ahead. “I said – I said I'm really glad you're here and helping us. It's … I think it's really good of you.”

“Oh,” came the perplexed response. “I thought I heard that.” Tamatoa pondered for a long moment, a variety of expressions passing over his face, and for a time, he seemed oddly conflicted about what the girl had just said to him. Eventually, he settled on a stubborn indignation and adopted an offended tone. “Ew. I think I'll go and throw up, now.”

“That can wait, Tamatoa! How did you know Maui would be here?”

“The Kakamora have a hideout here. They would've been the only things stupid enough to capture Maui. The demons, though? I wasn't really expecting that part, now I'm regretting being right about everything.”

“Wait ...” Moana murmured, staring ahead. She observed the demons talking in gibberish amongst themselves, their angry dances when time and time again they failed to cook the demigod tied up above their heads. They beat their masks and squawked, the behaviour entirely reminiscent of the mysterious, coconut-clad entities she had come across upon the ocean in times past.

She covered her mouth in shock and reached out for Tamatoa's leg, batting it as things started to actually make some sense.

“They _are_ Kakamora!” she whispered urgently. “They're not demons! They've just been corrupted! Maybe Te Po's curse is just getting stronger for some reason. The monsters of Lalotai ...” pausing, Moana looked up at the enormous crab lingering over her. “The Moon was still protecting this place, wasn't she? She must have placed the magic that protects it from the ocean, and she must have prevented Te Po's corruption getting stronger. What's going to happen without her?”

There was no use in asking the question, because it was obvious. The magical barrier protecting Lalotai was weakening, meaning the island beneath the waves was going to be completely submerged sooner rather than later. Furthermore, if the Kakamora present had been so badly affected by Te Po's dark power, what did that mean for the other monsters? What did it mean for the entire world when cursed beasts arose from the depths, more powerful and vengeful than ever before?

There was no time to waste. Moana took up her torch and began striding boldly into the clearing, much to the dismay of Tamatoa, who had no choice then but to emerge from the trees himself as the girl would no doubt bring attention to them. Indeed, the corrupted Kakamora fell silent and turned when they heard movement, and Moana liked to think they were just as afraid of her as they were of the armoured behemoth behind her.

Probably not, though it didn't matter. The impish little creatures didn't dare try to attack her for the moment and allowed her to simply pass through them unharmed.

“Curly!” Maui called out excitedly, giving a pathetic little wave of his tied up hands. “Where've you been? Man, I thought you'd gotten yourself into all kinds of trouble. I -” The demigod's gaze was immediately drawn to the monster crab. The two stared at each other for a good minute or two as Moana struggled to untie Maui's bonds. The rope was made of thick, dried seaweed, tough enough that it was near enough unbreakable, but Tamatoa tentatively reached forwards and snipped through it with his claw.

“Just so you know, it was _her_ idea,” Tamatoa was quick to assure everybody present, gesturing at Moana fervently.

“What?” Maui barked, picking himself up off the pile of sticks and rubbing his sore wrists. He stood in front of Moana as if to protect her, then held up his fists threateningly, daring the monsters surrounding them to try and provoke him. “When I say run, you run, Moana! My hook's nearby, I'll snatch it and show these creepy-crawlies a thing or two!”

“Creepy-crawly?” Tamatoa shot back, clearly insulted. “I'm a _crustacean_. Clearly the gods didn't teach you anything, you miserable little biped!”

“Well, at least I got given all the good looks, huh?! I'm gonna beat ya until you're blue, crabcake!”

“Hah! Joke's on you, bro. I'm already blue!”

The Kakamora observed the argument like they were watching a sports game, heads flicking back and forth as the two continued bickering. Moana was the first to come to her senses. Grabbing hold of Maui's arm, she tried to pull him away from the argument with little success, and so she rolled her eyes and instead slid down the cooking pile on her own to head into one of the nearby huts. It was luck more than anything, but she found Maui's fish hook set upon a crude little table as an ornament, and then heaved it outside to find the demonic Kakamora watching her, instead.

The silence was deafening. Even Maui and Tamatoa fell silent, unnerved by the lack of activity on the Kakamora's part.

The silence was disturbed by an odd rumble overhead. It didn't quite sound like thunder. If possible, it sounded deeper and more threatening than a storm, a deep tremor rocking the ocean sky over their heads. Then there came the gentle pitter-patter of rain, warm water cascading gently from above and hitting the leafy canopy of the trees.

“Oh, no,” Tamatoa babbled, pulling at his antennae in a sudden panic. “Oh, no, no, no! Not again! The ocean! It's going to fall in and squash us flat!”

Acting quickly, Moana lobbed the magical fish hook towards Maui, who caught it and used it to transform himself into his favourite form: a giant hawk, one large enough to pick Moana up by her upper arms and carry her off into the air. She cried out and kicked her legs, surprised by the sudden attempt at escape.

“Wait!” Tamatoa called up at them, knocking over several Kakamora as he began scuttling after them in a panicked dash. “You can't leave me, shrimp-girl! We had a deal! I need to be beautiful again!”

The cold breeze blew her hair over her face and she could do nothing to stop it. She could no longer see what was going on around her. She could only hang in Maui's strong claws and hope that the torrent of water preparing to come crashing down from the heavens bypassed them. She wasn't just scared for herself and her friend, however. Fearing for the well-being of the monsters below, the girl cried out again in frustration and desperately fought the iron grip of the hawk as they soared through the air.

The sky grumbled a final time. It was nothing compared to the deafening roar of tumbling water that followed. It was like soaring past a waterfall miles wide, the freezing spray splashing against her skin. Moana couldn't help but scream as the sky was torn apart, fearing being knocked out of the sky, but her voice was lost to the thunderous water and howling wind as it rushed past her ears. Through the strands of her flailing hair, she could see the massive trees of the forest being pushed over and broken by the great pillar of ocean.

She hated seeing her beloved Ocean becoming so destructive, but she knew, at least, that it wasn't being done out of choice.

Terror-struck, Moana crumpled to the sodden grass below as soon as she was brought down to the safety of an open plane. Flicking her hair back, she could see giant creatures cowering at the sight of the tropics being destroyed. None of them paid any attention to her or Maui. Though they were mere animals grown to impossible sizes thanks to magic, she could see the fear in their eyes and she found it pained her; a dull, hollow throbbing blooming in her chest.

“Moana!” Maui called. He picked her up by her shoulders and set her on her feet, dusting her off and laughing as if they had just shared in something incredible. “That was fun, right? Get a load of the Ocean! Woo!” The demigod pumped his fists and swung his fish hook, laughing raucously. “Maui's back, baby! Now we can fly to the Underworld and find out what the heck's going on!”

Moana felt a sudden throb of anger. Throwing back her hair, she turned on Maui and gave him a glare so fierce that the man actually winced, his smile dripping quickly from his face.

“Hey, what's up, Curly? You could fry eggs on that face.”

“You wanna know what's going on, do you?” Moana shot back loudly, jabbing her friend in the chest with a finger. “The sky's falling in because the Moon's magic here is fading! I've got to figure out a way to open the door to Abokas _without_ a full Moon, and since we got here I've been eaten by plants, dropped into cursed caves that made everything go upside-down, and chased by corrupted Kakamora with giant claws! I really could have used your help, Maui!”

“Hey! None of this is my fault! I got separated from my hook -”

“None of this is your fault?!” Moana laughed incredulously, gripping her head in a moment of disbelief. “Maybe if you hadn't stolen _all_ of Te Po's fire in the first place! Maybe if you hadn't broken her Heart!”

Maui took a small step back and assumed a wounded expression as if he had just been smacked across the face.

“I didn't know any of this would happen, Moana. I'm sorry it's been rough, but we're together now! C'mon! Nothin' can stand in our way, 'cause we're a team, right?”

Despite her anger, Moana sniffed quietly and then moved forwards to throw her arms around her friend's torso, hugging him as hard as she possibly could. Tears built in her eyes, but she rubbed them away quickly before he could see, keeping her gaze averted. Her efforts proved futile, for a strong finger lifted her face carefully upwards and she was met with a kind but mischievous grin.

“It's gonna be okay!” Maui reassured her, giving her head a swift pat. “No Kakamora or giant crabs are gonna get in our way again! Now, we're just gonna have to find the entrance, somehow. Or, y'know, we could just continue hanging here, hugging it out. I guess.”

Struck with alarm, Moana yanked herself away from the demigod and turned to face the destruction in the distance. The pillar of ocean was gradually becoming smaller and smaller. Over their heads, the magical barrier flashed with white magic like lightning, working to seal the hole shut, but by the time it was closed, the damage was already done.

The forest was mostly destroyed. Broken, jagged trunks pierced the sky like mountains. Between them ran rivers of ocean water that drained into canyons and valleys. Monstrous bats and birds fled the site, shrieking into the sky. Moana felt her heart quiver with sadness.

“This is awful,” she murmured, moving a hand to clutch her grandmother's necklace. “Maui, we have to find Tamatoa and put this right.”

“Excuse me?” the demigod spluttered, jaw falling open. “What's Crabcake gotta do with any of this? Why were you even with him in the first place?”

“We made a deal. He'd show me the way to Abokas, and I'd convince Te Po to give his treasure back. I wouldn't have gotten this far without him, so we're going to find him whether you like it or not. You're both just going to have to get along!”

The man scowled and folded his arms, pouting moodily.

 


	6. Pools of Pique

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sincerest apologies for the wait, guys! Please enjoy!

The pair took to the skies again. This time, Moana was seated firmly on Maui's feathered back and had her hair tied into a bun so that she could scour the land below with ease. They followed each and every river flowing out of the destroyed forest for what felt like hours, and with each passing minute, the girl became more and more frustrated, knowing full well that their time was precious.

As such, she remained alert and steadfast, and eventually a flash of blue caught her eyes.

“There!” she called out over the wind, pointing towards a wide crag. The canyon, something that was probably once a mere ditch in the ground, was as deep as it was wide, stretching on for miles on end. Black, volcanic stone lined its walls, and ocean water trickled down from all sides, creating massive ponds and puddles.

Poor Tamatoa was ensconced in one of these shallow ditches of water, upside-down and unmoving. Upon closer inspection, his eyes and antennae were flat on the ground, and his massive tongue was lolling lifelessly out of his mouth.

“Looks pretty dead to me, Curly,” Maui shrugged once they had landed, resuming his human form. He gave Tamatoa's armoured side a hard poke before leaning casually against it, watching Moana as she flitted this way and that in her attempts to rouse the monster. “Look, we don't need him! I've been to Abokas myself! I'll remember the way there eventually.”

Moana spun to face him with a ferocious gleam in her eyes.

“All right, all right!” the demigod relented. With a loud, dramatic sigh, he transformed into a hawk again and carried himself high up into the sky. Once there, he transformed back and curled into a tight ball, laughing as he soared back down faster and faster until he thudded so hard into Tamatoa's stomach that the entire ground shook with the impact.

Water erupted from Tamatoa's mouth like a geyser. The creature coughed loudly several times and his eyelids fluttered pathetically, much to Moana's relief. The girl quickly clambered up one of his legs and onto his chin to give the poor thing several firm scratches there until his gaze lifted to focus on her.

“Stop trying to eat me, Grandma!” he whined, clearly in a daze. The crab's pupils swam about all over the place until eventually fixing upon Moana, and he seemed rather confused for several seconds. “Oh, it's you. You're a bit small to be my Grandma, aren't you?”

“That's right,” Moana agreed, continuing to scratch the rubbery skin. “I'm not your Grandma. I'm Moana. Remember?”

“Oh, yes, that's right. The one who abandoned me to the ocean. Listen, I've got something stuck in my neck. Pull it out and I _might_ forgive you. Emphasis on the _might_.”

Standing up, the girl explored the vast regions of squishy skin until she found one of the Kakamora's spears embedded in the monster's shoulder. The weapon was far too small to have done any real damage, but when she yanked the stick out with a quiet _doink_ , she was shocked to find that the small wound beneath was an unpleasant, inky black. Was that normal for monsters?

She inspected the end of the spear worriedly. It appeared normal: relatively harmless and haphazardly thrown together with no trace of the same dark matter on the sharpened tip. There was little time to contemplate just what she was looking at.

“Oh, now this is the part where I eat you!” Tamatoa announced, holding up his claws triumphantly. “I lied! I won't forgive you! Now, stay still so that I can grab you!”

Easily avoiding the crab's clumsy attempts to seize her into his massive, serrated limb, she quickly slid down one of his legs and joined Maui. The pair watched, somewhat amused, as the crustacean threw his claws up into the air in several attempts to force himself upright.

“Stop staring! How dare you leave me to be washed away by the Ocean! _Me!”_ he roared. The creature, in a rather pitiful display, was now rocking back and forth on his shell, his legs wriggling about in the air. “Me, the mighty Tamatoa!” Quickly giving up on his pursuit of movement, his various appendages flopped heavily into the shallow water, and he sighed forlornly. “How could I be defeated by a pair of nasty little hagfish like you?”

Moana's demigod companion sighed so loudly in response that the girl was almost knocked flat on her face by the draft it caused. He swung his hair back with a grunt and then approached the helpless creature before them, taking aim with his great hook. With one powerful swing, the side of the hook slammed flat against Tamatoa's shell and sent the monster skidding backwards (much to the crab's apparent dismay) until a smooth slope in the rock sent him flipping over onto his belly.

Moana applauded gleefully her friend's feat, though the man managed to restrain any cockiness that might have ensued in favour of a sullen nonchalence.

And so the next step of their adventure began.

 

* * *

 

They travelled a little while, Tamatoa scuttling ahead to ensure he was heading in the right direction, and Moana hanging off Maui's shoulders. Before long, their monster companion became too exhausted to move much further (gigantic creatures exerted that much more energy, after all), and proclaimed he was going to sleep off the nightmare he had just endured. Pointedly ignoring the others after that, he buried himself into a little crater and appeared nothing more than a giant, bluish boulder rising from the dirt.

Moana didn't try to wake him up, already feeling guilty for having left him behind, though she refused to stop and rest herself, pacing back and forth as she tried to think ahead. She swallowed back her fear, ran her hands through her hair, and grumbled agitatedly to herself as ideas came and went, each one as ridiculous as the next.

“Y'know what, Curly? Gettin' yourself all wound up is just gonna make things worse,” Maui said unhelpfully. Her friend appeared rather comfortable and relaxed despite it all, lounging back in a leaf hammock he had somehow assembled within the space of minutes. He swung leisurely between two giant palm trees, arms folded back behind his head. “Hey, you've got me! Now nothin' can go wrong! We'll sneak our way in,” Maui began, performing walking movements with his fingers, “find Te Po, and bring the fire back. Bam, the dead will stop crying and Talalelei can return to the sky.”

She was pleased to have him back, she really was, but his overconfidence was grating at most.

“It was so easy for you last time, right? That time you turned into a whale and carried the fire out?” Moana retorted slyly.

“Yup!” Maui's voice cracked.

“Come on, Maui! I know what really happened! Te Po got the best of you and you're telling me you're not the least bit scared?”

The demigod immediately stopped swinging and sat bolt upright, eyes wide with surprise.

“Huh – wha'? Where did … Man, you really dug deep into the past with the crab, didn't ya? That's _his_ version of the story. Are you forgetting that that's the same guy who threatened to eat you and tried to steal the Heart of Te Fiti from you? Huh? He's bad news, Moana!”

“Just like you stole the Heart from Te Fiti herself? Te Po's fire?”

“That was different!”

“No, it wasn't,” the young chief responded, allowing her tone to soften. “You did it for you. You lied to everyone about the fire. You lied to me! You didn't want people to know that you almost failed. I _know_ you. You just let people believe everything you told them and you let your friend believe there was no point in doing anything good. Do you know what he is? He's you if you just _gave up_.”

The quiet creaking resumed as the hammock began swinging back and forth, back and forth.

“It's not my fault that blubber-head's a massive jerk!” Maui argued lightly, the slowly bubbling anger beneath the surface more than evident in his expression. “Okay? End of story! All right, whatever, so he carried the fire outta Abokas! Big deal! D'you think the islanders were gonna celebrate him? A talking crab? They would've called him a demon and thrown him into the ocean!”

The last sentence was spoken with uncharacteristic emotion. Plainly believing that he had said too much, Maui rolled out of the hammock and kept his gaze averted. Moana, meanwhile, was struck with a sudden sadness as she was forced to think back to her friend's terrible start to life. She treaded forwards and placed a hand on the man's tattooed arm, offering her continued comradeship in the face of all that was to come.

A large hand awkwardly patted hers.

“I'm sorry,” Maui said quickly, as if rushing it would make it less painful to say. “I'm sorry I lied. It was the last thing I should've done to you. I just … I guess I don't want you to think less of me. Is that dumb? I mean, you're only the best person I know, with or without the Ocean's blessing.”

“I'm sorry, too.”

Maui snorted. “For what?”

“If any of this is bringing back bad memories.”

A muscular arm pulled her into a friendly side-hug, then.

“Princess, we'll get through it! All we can do is just carry on!”

Tamatoa grumbled himself awake some time later and dragged himself out of the dirt with his claws, lazily pulling himself over to where the pair had decided to settle.

The trio allowed themselves a quick meal to gather their ideas and ascertain exactly where it was they had to go and what to expect. As Maui and Moana picked suspiciously at the various foliage they had assembled, Tamatoa slurped obnoxiously on another giant coconut. _Slrrrrp, slrrrp,_ over and over again until it became more than clear that he had long since emptied it of the milk inside.

“Hey, will you knock it off?!” Maui exclaimed eventually, lobbing an oversized berry pip in the crab's general direction. “Some of us are tryin' to cool off after that _nightmare_ back there -”

“Oh, right, right! I guess I did all my _cooling off_ when I was washed away by that very same nightmare! Oh, which was your fault, by the way,” Tamatoa shot back, his eyes narrowing with contempt. “I've still got seaweed stuck in places I didn't know I had. Speaking of which -”

“No! You're on your own with that one, fish-breath. Maybe you could start telling us how far away Abokas is and what we're gonna come up against between here and there, huh? Y'know, before I change my mind about you clinging to us like some dumb limpet.”

Moana restrained a groan and slowly resumed eating the bright pink berry she had picked out, resting her face in her hand in defeat. It was good to be amongst friends, but not when those friends hated each other more than anything else and repeatedly attempted to make their feelings more than clear.

They had opted for a crevice embedded in cliffs of black stone. Outside, a cliff-face dropped for what seemed like miles, leading down to a leafy canopy that glowed a bright blue. To their side were steaming pools, but the water there wasn't clear – it was thick with mud and it bubbled slowly, simmering like the growl of a mighty beast, hot wafts of steam vacating its surface. These pools stretched on and on, seemingly impossible to cross, but their guide had mentioned before stopping that it was in that direction they were headed.

Said guide was waiting outside of the crevice, his eyes narrowing more and more until they may as well have been shut.

“I told you I can't tell you how long it'll take!” he burst out. He clenched the shell of the coconut so hard that it swiftly shattered in his agitation. “Lalotai's weird, man! Stuff wakes up and moves around! Yeah, even the trees and the earth when they think you aren't looking. We have to cross the Pools of Pique and then we have to find Taku Pāmamae 'cause it holds the entrance to the Underworld.”

“We should go,” Moana cut in before another argument could unfold. “We need to get there while it's still light or we're gonna run into all kinds of monsters. Are you … are you guys ready? Are you even listening?” she added upon noting that her companions were too busy glaring at each other to actually pay any attention. With a growl, Moana abruptly stood up and dusted herself off before collecting her things.

Tamatoa did, at least, hold out a leg in preparation for Moana to clamber up onto his shell, but the girl found her path suddenly blocked when a large fish hook thudded lightly into her belly.

“Pfft, yeah, right, Moana. You don't gotta sit on some spiky shell any more. You'd rather hang onto my shoulders again, right? You know I'll get us there in no time.”

Before Moana could even respond, Tamatoa answered in her stead.

“You'll get nowhere on those horrible stubs you call legs. Look at you: small and soft and delicious looking. She should be on my back, where the things that hunt the likes of you _hoomans_ can't find her,” His eyes swivelled back to Moana. “Climb on, little barnacle. Just women and crustaceans here. No mini-gods allowed!”

“Her name is Moana and she's not gonna sit on some gross crab!” Maui exclaimed. “You think the Ocean's Chosen wants to work with something like you? Man, have you forgotten why we need you here in the first place? All we need from you is directions, nothin' else! Get walking before I take another leg!”

Moana lost her temper almost immediately. Shoving her way past Maui's hook, she bypassed Tamatoa's leg and stormed off in the direction of the pools.

“The Ocean's Chosen can speak for herself!” she shouted back, treading up the jagged slope. Still seething, she managed to ignore how the volcanic rock scratched at the tough undersides of her feet, too irritated to consider that allowing one of her friends to offer themselves as transport would no doubt be easier.

Upon closing in on the Pools of Pique, Moana could see that each pool was approximately circular in shape. There had to be hundreds of them, all of them separated by thin, muddy ledges, and there was no way around them, either, for on one side was a sheer cliff stretching down and down forever, and on the other side was one enormous bubbling pool that would be impossible to walk through.

Feeling fear welling up within her, she leaned over to inspect the closest pool, watching the thick, tar-like goop within slowly roil with heat. Something didn't seem right about the place – then again, what was right with Lalotai? Everything in the realm had been afflicted by the curse of Te Po's heart one way or another, size being a given, and Moana suspected that if she were to come into contact with the foul water within the pools, she would instantly regret it.

“What does it do?” she asked aloud, hearing the others approaching from behind.

“Doesn't matter, we'll just fly over it,” Maui offered. When Moana turned, she found her friend holding up his fish hook expectantly, preparing to turn into a hawk at her assent.

“You'll fly over it if you want to be gobbled up by the bats that flap around this place. What did I say about offering yourselves as food when I'm so kindly refraining from eating you? Ugh. Humans.” Tamatoa scuttled forwards and tentatively stepped over a number of the pools with one leg until he found solid ground. “I know that you're freakishly small, but try looking up for once in your tiny, miserable lives!”

Moana glanced upwards. Indeed, there was a dark cloud overhead, one composed entirely of monstrous creatures flapping in formation. Even from her spot down below, she could see the glint of the bats' red eyes as they swarmed about the ocean-sky.

Flying was out of the question, then, lest they wanted to be dive-bombed by bats three times the size of Maui himself. Moana willingly allowed herself to be picked up by Tamatoa's claw. Maui, meanwhile, was pointedly left behind, forced to tip-toe across the muddy ledges with his arms held out for balance.

“The shadow-fire makes people feel sad,” Tamatoa explained, holding Moana up to his face. While once he might have been reluctant to share his knowledge with an outsider, he now did it with pride while wearing a smug smile, oddly comfortable with offering his aid. It likely had something to do with Maui's presence. “This gross mud stuff fills people with - eurgh … oh, what's that word, again? Doubt? Why am I doubting myself all of a sudden?”

Moana glanced downwards and noted that the the bottom of the crab's legs were muddy, being too large to properly traverse the place unscathed.

“The fire is corrupted by sadness,” she recalled thoughtfully. “These pools are corrupted by doubt. What corrupted the Kakamora?”

“Pain,” Tamatoa responded at once, and the utter certainty in his voice in wake of the cursed mud coating parts of his shell was somewhat disheartening. Wasn't he a monster, too? Had she not seen the inside of his shell becoming blackened with dark magic? If the Kakamora were susceptible to the rapidly building corruption haunting Lalotai, then so to was Tamatoa, as much as Moana attempted to convince herself otherwise.

“Did … did he mean what he said back there?” the monster asked suddenly, his enormous eyes suddenly drooping with sorrowful uncertainty. “I know that I'm a huge, frightening crab that would eat you without hesitation, but I'm the best horrible thing that you'll ever meet. I don't just give directions, I … I sing, too! I have the best – or only - voice in Lalotai! And I can juggle boulders, did you know? And I can whistle through my teeth, tie my antennae in a knot without looking, and this weird thing where it looks like I'm pulling off part of my claw but really it's just hidden underneath the other one -”

“No one cares, mush-face!” Maui called upwards, which proved a dire mistake, for taking his eyes off the ground meant that he was swift to slip and slap face-first into the mud with a muffled kind of splish. Arms and legs spread-eagled, the man slowly began to sink into the hot ooze, a quiet bubbling signalling that he was furiously vocalising his frustration. “I think?” he managed when he raised his head, tugging himself over to the side of the pool and quickly pulling himself out of it, performing an odd little dance as he did. “Agh! It's hot, hot, hot!”

“Moana cares!” Tamatoa spurted back furiously, his voice laced with spite. It was, strangely enough, the first time he had used the girl's name without attempting to insult her. “Moana's been listening to me the entire way, 'cause she's the goody-goody ocean princess, or whatever,” he jibed, fluttering pretend eyelashes for a moment. “She even liked my song!”

Moana covered her face with her hands. The three of them had stopped moving as the monster and the demi-god faced off to commence yet another argument. Helpless in Tamatoa's claw, Moana was forced to dangle and watch the two of them once again forget the purpose of their journey and fall victim to an ancient contempt, one she was sure she would never understand for as long as she lived.

Perhaps she was blessed to have never known such hate, but she was sure it was because she had never come to despise one she had once loved.

Maui inhaled as if preparing to unleash an impressive gust of wind. His skin turned redder and redder as his anger overwhelmed and consumed him, but his magical fish hook remained down by his side.

 

_“No one really likes your songs, y'know_

_They're as neat as a pile of dead fish, bro!_

_'Cause what crab can sing?_

_That's where Maui is king!_

_You can bet Moana's just doin' it for show!”_

 

It was an impressive display, to be sure. If petty arguments could be impressive, that is, and Moana was beginning to doubt whether either of the pair were ever going to put their rivalry aside for the greater good. Apparently, it had been too much to ask of them.

It was Tamatoa's turn to offer some sort of rebuttal, and he prepared by squaring himself up towards the mud-covered demigod, teeth bared and antennae flashing red.

 

_“You'll just talk the talk all you can_

_No one's scaredier than Maui is, man!_

_You'll fight and you'll flaunt_

_You'll jibe and you'll taunt_

_But you've been a chicken since you began!”_

 

“Now really isn't the time for this, guys!” Moana tried to interject, waving her arms as if to catch the attention of her companions. A futile endeavour, to be sure.

 

_“You were just jealous, admit it!_

_I was the favourite and don't forget it_

_Gifts galore, my guy!_

_All from my friends in the sky_

_And they forgot about you bit by bit!”_

 

In response, Tamatoa took a threatening step forwards, his leg sinking deeper and deeper into the murky waters of doubt.

 

_“Jealousy was never for me_

_You may have brought the tides to the sea_

_But your insufferable smile_

_Your achieving and guile_

_I hated being your de-vo-tee!”_

 

Overhead, the cloud of bats began unleashing unearthly screeches. Maui didn't seem to hear it.

 

_“If the stars said: 'Make a wish!'_

_I'd wish for you chopped up on a dish -”_

_“I'd wish for Maui to die, the cretin_

_I'd then ask of them to help me forget him -”_

_“You're worse than bad gas!”_

_“You're a huge pain in my – AAAAAHHHH!”_

 

It didn't take long for Moana to see why Tamatoa's rhyme had been interrupted by his own girlish scream.

The argumentative little ditty had long caught the attention of the monsters over their heads, but the bats – moderately sized in comparison with everything else in this realm – were the least of their problems. Significantly worse was the fact a part of the enormous, obsidian cliffs was now moving rapidly towards them. It wasn't part of the cliffs at all, in fact, but was actually another monster that neared Tamatoa in size, a bat of such magnitude that even from a distance, Moana could see it's pig-like nose glistening in the sunlight.

The giant bat was using its stubby legs and clawed wings to lug itself over to them, horribly sharp teeth gnashing unpleasantly. Its eyes, which would have been beady if the beast was of a normal size, shone as red as jewels – and then Moana realised that was exactly what they were. Its eyes were of precious stone, just as its once leathery wings and fur were now composed of the same rock that surrounded them, black and brittle. It was like the rock had melted over the beast, and it creaked and cracked as it crawled closer to them, black shards tumbling from its wings. It didn't seem to care that it was slowly crumbling into pieces.

Worse was its smile, frozen onto its face with stone.

The monster was corrupted, just like the Kakamora.

“My song!” Tamatoa lamented. “Oh, I was just getting to the good bit!”

“It's Te Kowhaea!” Maui announced loudly. “Hey, crabcake! Run with Moana! I'll show you who's chicken, ya oversized scrapheap!”

The crab growled in response to the insult but turned and began scuttling away from the din regardless, now stepping clumsily into the pools without care. Moana dangled helplessly from his iron grip, desperately trying to look around the monster to see what Maui was planning to do regarding the newest threat.

“Tamatoa, wait!” she pleaded, ignoring the fright welling in her gut. “We need to … We've gotta help him!”

“No way, man!” was the passionate response. “I'm here to get my treasure back, not wrestle with disgusting mammals. Oh!” Tamatoa suddenly sighed, appearing visibly frustrated. “I just came up with the best comeback, too. Now, that's just typical. You need to remind me to say it if that thing doesn't squish him into little tiny bits.”

Not at all content with simply running away, Moana waved a hand to catch the attention of one of Tamatoa's eyes, which reluctantly fixed upon her whilst the other sought their way onwards.

Meanwhile, she could hear the mighty thudding and grating of Te Kowhaea's claws on the stones, its near deafening, shrill shriek as it sought battle with that which had awoken it from its slumber. She could hear Maui cheering, too, no doubt sweeping through the skies and aiming hard blows at the monster's body to either deter it or frighten it off entirely.

“Please, put me down,” she begged. “I've only just got him back!”

The giant eye surveyed her closely. (Far too closely, if she were squeamish.)

“You'll get smooshed, you silly thing. Look at the size of you! You'd be adorable if you weren't so fuzzy.” The eye narrowed then, as it often did. “Risking your life for Maui? Pfffbbtt! That's the best joke I've heard in a thousand years!”

His concern was as sudden as it was surprising. Disarmed, Moana gaped up at him, any kind of argument torn cleanly from her tongue. Was it the waters of doubt influencing his emotions, or was it born of a genuine desire to keep her safe?

Regardless, she couldn't allow herself to simply run away. The monster known as Te Kowhaea almost rivalled Tamatoa in size, but Moana wouldn't allow her fear to show. She had defeated larger things in the past.

Watching the thick, cursed water splash its way up Tamatoa's legs, she then waved her arms up at him again, seeking his attention.

“Hey! We don't have to run away!” she called, her voice cracking with desperation. “Isn't this what you wanted?!”

“What do you mean _'Isn't this what you wanted'?_ I don't know – I don't know what that means!” the crab babbled, giving her an agitated little shake. “Yes, there's nothing I've wanted more than to be eaten by a humongous bat! Stop trying to confuse me when I'm running in doubt water, it isn't nice!"

Behind them, Moana could hear the battle commencing. There came thuds, cheers, and shrieks, but she couldn't make head nor tail of who was winning based on sound alone. Given the longevity of the brawl, she could guess that Maui was struggling against the giant, stone beast, and it was hardly a surprise. A corrupted monster was undoubtedly more powerful than an ordinary one, given the terrible transformation of the Kakamora.

Here, the corruption was doubt. Its muddy waters trapped poor souls within and turned them into stone, transformed them, turned them into something that they didn't want to be. It didn't make sense to Moana, for she had often doubted herself in the past and had only become better because of it.

Why was it that emotions had become curses? Why was it a broken heart was grieving a goddess to the extent the world was falling apart around her?

“It's okay!” Moana called up to Tamatoa, seeing the growing panic in his enormous face. “There's nothing wrong with doubting yourself! What's important is that you do what you feel is right by you afterwards! It just means that you're -”

Human, she was going to say, but managed to stop herself. Doubt wasn't just a human trait, it seemed.

“What are you blabbering on about?” was the expected response. “You humans talk nonsense half the time. Honestly, I have no idea how you even understand each other.”

Moana felt her head snap back when they were forced to a sudden stop. Looking down past her friend's claw, she found that his legs had suddenly become so entrenched in mud and thick goop that the giant monster was actually stuck. He heaved and heaved as much as he could, but eventually dropped down onto his belly and splashed into the water, eyes and antennae drooping with worry.

“You can help Maui,” Moana urged, offering a kind smile despite her concern. “Isn't that what you wanted? To be a hero like him? If you can think and talk, isn't that for a reason?”

“Yes!” Tamatoa managed, clearly furious. “I asked myself that every day for a hundred years while Maui was off saving the world and leaving me behind every time. Do you know how much help the Moon was when I asked her? Absolute zero. I realised that I was created for some stinky little semi-god so that he wouldn't feel so bad about his human friends and their pathetic life-spans -”

“No!” Moana argued. “She wouldn't -”

“It's true, little barnacle. I wasn't created to be his friend, I was created to be his _pet_. If the Moon wanted me to be like him, she would've put my mana into a human, instead, rather than a creature that everyone is afraid of.”

Moana knew that feeling: the constant _why me?_

“Why did the Ocean choose a young girl when she could have chosen a warrior, Tamatoa? I still don't really know, but … whatever she saw in my heart, she decided I was worthy of being trusted with what needed to be done. Maybe the Moon saw something in you, too, just like the Ocean chose me and the gods chose Maui. You can choose to let your doubt drive you or scare you away, but don't let it turn you into something you're not.”

Tamatoa's lower lip suddenly wibbled. He dramatically flung his free claw over his eyes to hide his evident sorrow.

“It's too late for that! I'm just a poor crab without his treasure, about as shiny as a boulder -”

“It doesn't matter what you look like! You're just as capable of being as good as any human!” Moana pressed. “I know because I've seen it.”

The claw lowered, and round eyes peered at her from over the top.

“I'm … a goody-goody square like you?”

“Um – if you want?”

Tamatoa snivelled, then, the horrible sound trembling through his antennea much like one might blow their nose when upset.

“Th-that's the w-worst thing anyone's said to m-me, but … I really need the giant bat's super shiny eyeballs for my c-collection, so … Hold on!”

A solid mass thwumped Moana in the belly as she was lobbed onto the monster's back. Immediately scrabbling for something to hold on to, she found the edge of Tamatoa's shell and held on for dear life when her companion slid his legs easily out of the clutches of the cursed water and made an abrupt turn.

From this higher vantage point, Moana could once again look upon Te Kowhaea – The Mother – and witness the fight between the creature and Maui. The demigod was fighting off a number of the smaller bats as they swooped down over and over again, his legs well and truly stuck in one of the pools. Slowly, he sank deeper and deeper until he was up to his midriff in bubbling mud, swiping his fish hook this way and that.

Te Kowhaea raised a giant, heavy wing, sending broken bits of herself down around them, and made to bring the great limb down upon Maui's head.

She might have been successful if Tamatoa didn't catch her wing in his claw just in time. With all his might did he push the bat backwards, allowing Moana enough time to slide down one of his legs and land safely on the edge of Maui's pool.

“I told you to run!” the demigod greeted her incredulously, narrowly dodging the claws of one of Te Kowhaea's many children. “But, man, am I glad to see ya come back! That thing's turning into stone!”

“And the stone will break,” Moana assured him, leaning over to reach for his free arm. “We've won this one, Maui.”

The man allowed her to attempt to pull his hefty self over to the side of the pool, his mouth falling open with disbelief. He didn't budge an inch.

“How can you be so sure? Have ya seen the size of that thing? I don't think even I can -”

“Maui, turn into a hawk!”

The demand was spoken with such authority that the demigod appeared somewhat flabbergasted for a moment, though he did as he was bid, his form replaced with that of a giant hawk in a flash of blue. With only his feet trapped, now, he beat his wings with all his strength until he was freed. Moana released a celebratory whoop as she was carted off in his claws, laughing as the wind blew through her hair and clothes.

 

_“If pangs of doubt are crippling you_

_Just peer into your heart for a clue_

_With your ambitious smile_

_Your achieving and guile_

_You can be a hero like Maui, too!”_

 

Te Kowhaea screeched deafeningly, the sound piercing the magical sky. An enormous claw slammed down into her back, forcing her to the ground. The more she tried to fight against Tamatoa, the weaker she became, gradually stiffening until movement came with such difficulty that she simply stopped trying. It was then Tamatoa released her, watching as the poor monster slowly became frozen in place.

The giant bat moved no more.

Still as a statue, she remained bowed upon the earth, the red jewels on her face glinting in the light. Tamatoa took the opportunity to pry them off and raise them to his own eyes, peering through them towards Maui and Moana, who had since landed a small distance away.

“Babe, just call me _Slam_ atoa!” the crab said gleefully. “Gems for eyes! What a trendsetter!”

“Put them back where ya found 'em, moron! That's super gross,” Maui called back. “Oh, and just so everybody knows, I did most of the work back there. If ya weren't watching, well, sucks to be you, I guess.” He glanced down at Moana and inclined his head towards the celebrating crab. “What did you do, huh? That guy wouldn't snap a claw a chicken.”

The young chief grinned back up at him, content with her work.

“Te Fiti gave you a second chance because you brought the Heart back,” she said, watching as Tamatoa deliberated between stealing the eyes and leaving them behind. “You should remember that, Maui.”

The demigod recoiled, trying to make sense of his friend's words. When the implication came to him, he simply sighed and began working his way around the Pools of Pique until he was safe from their awful effects.

“Crabcake? Lead the way.”

 


	7. Demons Within

The Moon had never shone so kindly down upon an island as it had Lalotai, but her beloved spot of land was now deep beneath the waves, forever shrouded by the pitch darkness of the ocean.

Maybe that was why she hadn't walked the world below for so long. Maui, at least, hadn't heard one of her songs gracing the waves as he sailed them. There she hung in the sky, ever silent, like she had never existed in the first place. Was it his fault? Was it because he had inadvertently caused the sinking of Lalotai and the monstrous transformation of the animals upon it? Would she ever place a kindly hand upon his shoulder again?

Would she ever even look his way?

The Moon's reflection upon the dark, still waters said nothing. As Maui directed his canoe onto the shore, he did his best to ignore it, instead gazing up at the one reminder Lalotai existed – the enormous dormant volcano that sat above it and provided entrance to the underwater world. It was a scrap of land, now, boasting only the stone spire and a few palm trees.

Near the trees sat Tamatoa, so supremely engorged in size that it was mind-boggling. He was staring somewhat forlornly up at the night sky, eyes swivelling as he tried to make sense of the stars and whatever it was they had to say.

“You never told me what they really are,” he said to Maui when the demigod approached. “Just blinky-flashy white things. I mean, what are they, really?”

“I dunno,” Maui admitted. “Some say they're the Moon's children, I guess.”

“Ohh,” Tamatoa exclaimed in awe, eyes shining as he continued to watch the stars above. “I don't know why, but I feel like I wanna visit. Imagine being surrounded by something all the time. All those shiny, shiny stars.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Maui agreed loosely. He raised his thumbnail to his teeth and gnawed on it for a moment, contemplating his friend. “Speaking of shiny stuff, I heard from a village to the east that some terrible monster just ransacked their homes and stole all their jewellery. Weird, 'cause a week ago a big canoe sank, too, and they told the same story. Only the worst kind of monsters try to hurt defenceless humans. You know that, right?”

Tamatoa froze, then slowly stood up to face Maui.

“I didn't hurt anyone!” he shot back, concealing his expression of guilt with something entirely narcissistic in nature. With little shame, he opened the treasure chest he had been sat on to reveal all kinds of precious things caught within: golden coins, jewels, and he held a cluster of them as protectively as a parent might hold a child to their chest. “Not one scratch, and they're still upset? Pah!”

“Yeah, 'cause they're humans! Look at the size of you, ya great idiot! They can't defend themselves against something like you!”

“Then they shouldn't have stuff like this!” Tamatoa bellowed, brandishing a collection of necklaces and fine cloth. “They're weak and horrible-looking! Do you know what their chief called me when I made my way through that village with all their things? A _bottomfeeder_ , then they all started making ugly noises. I mean, probably because I got nervous and started chasing them, but still! I'm strong and fast, I'm not a bottomfeeder!” 

“Why do you think I told ya to stay away from the humans, huh?! I said that they'd take one look at you and attack you 'cause you look different, but you didn't listen! It was just gonna be you and me, buddy, off against the world, but ya had to go and start being a total jerk! What, did you expect 'em to throw leis around your neck and welcome you in?”

Maui had known Tamatoa since the creature was teeny little hermit crab crawling about the shore. He had watched him grow from a curious little thing to an ambitious soul, one reigned back by the fact his appearance mirrored that of creatures disliked by the islanders. There was a legend, after all, that the menacing coconut crabs were the reborn spirits of wicked men, and were often found rifling through rubbish in the hope of finding something valuable.

He had known him since the beginning, and yet he had never seen such a look of fury before. Tamatoa dropped the treasure he was holding and clenched his claws so tightly that Maui thought they might simply break apart.

“They're happy with their fire,” the crab hissed furiously. “That's why I went in! I said, _'Hey, I'm one of the fools who stole from a god to bring it here!_ ' Not once did I think that my _best_ friend Maui left me out of the tale. I looked like an idiot, you … I can't even think of a word to insult you with! You're mad I stole treasure? Well, you've stolen my one chance to not be seen as breakfast! At least you look like them, man! You don't know anything about what it's like being tossed aside like an empty shell. You just forgot to boil and gut me, first!”

“It's not my fault you're a crab!” Maui argued back. Lowering his tone, he averted his gaze and turned it towards the ocean, instead, nervously rubbing his arm. “I do understand. My own mother threw me into the ocean when I was born. I don't even know why. I guess she just didn't want me, or maybe I didn't look normal. I tried to keep you on Lalotai for as long as I could 'cause I didn't want the same thing to happen to you. I never wanted the humans to find you.”

Tamatoa's antennae drooped with shock.

Then, out of nowhere, he started laughing.

It wasn't his usual kind of laughter. It was strained, perhaps even forced. Whatever the case, Maui felt his heart sink as he turned back to his friend and found himself greeted with a horribly malicious grin.

“Then we're more alike than I thought!” the crab said gleefully, his voice wild with both upset and mirth. “Nobody knows you like I do, _minigod_. Wait until the humans find out what you really are! An unwanted, thieving little -” 

Seizing a coconut into his claw, the monster lobbed it straight at Maui, who was initially too wounded to even consider moving out of the way. It smashed so hard into the man's skull that he was sent flat on his back, dazed, as what felt horribly like tears began to build in his eyes. Tears. Heroes didn't cry, and they definitely didn't get upset about the long distant past. They pushed it deep, deep down until they didn't have to think about it any more. Didn't they?

Even when he continued to be pelted with coconuts, he didn't move, staring up into the face of the Moon.

“Your own mother didn't want you!” Tamatoa hissed spitefully. “Well, I don't want you, either! You're just like the rest of them: ugly and stupid! Well, I'm gonna become the biggest, most beautiful monster there is, I'm gonna be even shinier than the stars, and then people won't have a choice but to look at and love _me:_ Tamatoa! The one who brought them the light that made them fear the dark!”

They fought that night under the disappointed gaze of the Moon. One lost a leg, and the other claimed a bitter victory that gifted him with a new tattoo.

The tattoo formed on Maui's back, where he couldn't see it. That way, he could forget how small others could make him feel. 

 

* * *

 

The defeat of Te Kowhaea had frightened off the terrifying cloud of monstrous bats, fortunately enough, meaning the trio could safely pass over the Pools of Pique with little difficulty (save for the occasional trip or stumble into watery uncertainty).

They stopped for a few minutes so that they could clean their feet and legs free of any mud in a small pond. Pointedly ignoring the enormous frog spawn floating about within the water, Moana washed her feet and then used a giant leaf to carry water over to Tamatoa, pouring it down his legs in an effort to help him. All the while, Maui watched with his lip curled in an expression of distaste.

“Where're the eyeballs?” he asked dryly, folding his arms. “Didn't see ya put 'em back, Count Crabula.”

Tamatoa pulled an extremely offended expression, immediately shrugging his claws with far too much gusto.

“I'unno,” he mumbled, barely opening his mouth to speak.

In response, Maui sighed and make a beckoning gesture at the monster.

“C'mon. Spit 'em out. I hope you realise how completely gross that is.”

With haughty flair, Tamatoa took several steps backwards, somehow appearing even more offended than before, his lips pursed to such an extent that it was comical.

“I am _not_ hiding precious gem eyeballs in my mouth!” the crab exclaimed, speaking through his now bulging cheeks. “Listen, brainless plankton , what do you take me for? I'm a hero, now, in case you've forgotten!” 

Instead of arguing back, Maui took the giant leaf from Moana and silently set about clambering up one of the crab's legs until he was planted firmly on the back of his neck. Before Tamatoa could so much as pinch a claw, the leaf was being wiggled against the base of his long antennae. It somehow rendered the monster temporarily immobile as he slowly went more and more cross-eyed.

“No! It's … not … ach – ach – AA _CHOOOOOO!_ ”

The two jewels were sneezed out of his mouth like projectiles, souring back over the Pools of Pique until they landed neatly in front of the frozen statue of Te Kowhaea.

“He shoots, he scores!” With that, Maui leapt back down to the ground and retrieved his fish hook. “She'll need those when she wakes up, dumby. C'mon, let's get moving before the entire ocean comes crashing down on our heads again.”

With one last longing glance back at the treasure, Tamatoa glowered and grumbled as he scuttled away towards a downhill slope in the cliffs.

“I don't remember you giving me my leg back,” Moana heard him mutter.

The three headed down the volcanic, rocky slope towards iridescent forest below, a place significantly more colourful and pleasing to the eye than the muddy pools behind them. Moana breathed a sigh of relief as they abandoned the formidable cliffs in favour of the trees, but it wasn't just their surroundings that filled her with some peace; the fact her two friends seemed to be getting along a little better had not avoided her attention, and she hoped that they had rediscovered a little respect for each other following the battle with Te Kowhaea.

Or maybe it was just wishful thinking. 

As they travelled deeper into the forest, it became clear that the place's outward beauty had been a deception. The innards had been twisted into something that made even the rest of Lalotai seem fairly tame in comparison. The jagged rocks emerging from the ground bore mouths with sharp-teeth, forever gaping. The trunks of the dark trees were coated in hooks and the vines draped across them them were like octopus tentacles, thick suckers ready to pull unsuspecting prey into the round, toothy mouths waiting at the crown of the plant.

Their journey was slowed somewhat by Tamatoa's size – the creature was continuously getting snagged in thick vines, much to his evident irritation, and so he spent much of his time simply cutting the undergrowth out of the way with vicious swipes of his claws. Moana was sat on the peak of his shell by that point, and even Maui had been allowed to infiltrate the monster's personal space and sit beside her. Either Tamatoa was too focused on his surroundings to make a big deal of it, or they really had allowed themselves to take a metaphorical step forwards.

Moana curled up on her side and tiredly watched their environment, too frightened to want to fall asleep, but now that she had calmed down somewhat following the encounter with the stone monster, her eyes slowly became more and more heavy. Her thoughts turned to more pleasant things, as it usually did. She could see her island sat alone in the middle of the ocean like an enormous piece of pounamu, the trees swaying and the water glittering. She could see the village people gathering, awaiting her return.

She woke up in Maui's arms. Or, at least, that was as much as she could guess, because they were surrounded by near perfect darkness.

Scrambling up from the demigod's hold, she clung onto his shoulders for dear life and held him close in a terrified embrace. All she could envision was the shadow of corruption spreading and spreading until it consumed everything, much like that very same darkness that had spread from Te Ka. Was it all over? Had they lost?

“Hey, hey!” Maui mumbled against the side of her head. “What's the matter, kid? It's okay, it's just super dark 'cause there's no Moon, remember?”

After receiving some firm and reassuring pats to her back, Moana turned her back to her friend and remained sat on his knee, facing what she could make out of the cursed tropics around them.

“Sorry, Maui. I've been trying so hard not to panic since this whole thing started. I can't even go to sleep without having dreams of Motunui and Tifaimoana dying thanks to all this.”

“Hey, it's okay! Ya know what? Uh, the prospect of meeting Te Po again is kinda terrifying, so you're not alone in the whole wimp department.”

In response, Moana jokingly punched her friend's arm.

“I am not a wimp, Maui!”

“Okay, okay, you're not a wimp, but if you're scared, it's fine. You've got me, I've got you, yadda yadda, we're gonna come outta this as heroes, 'cause we're the best team there ever was. You're worried it's all gonna spread to your islands, huh?”

Moana frowned and nodded, leaning back against the man's shoulder.

“Right. I mean, I don't think it works like Te Ka's. It seems to only affect Lalotai and the monsters, but they'll find the islands, won't they? My people can fight off the demons, but I don't think they can fight giant monsters alone. And ...” she stopped, lowering a hand to touch the hard shell beneath them. “I think it's going to take over all the creatures down here. I've seen it.”

She felt a hard huff on the back of her head. Maui's jolly facade shifted almost instantaneously, though he didn't try to move away, choosing to allow the young chief a place upon his knee for some moments more. She was grateful for his decision not to close off entirely, as he was known to do, for it meant that they could face their problems together and not apart.

“Bet you weren't expecting to be worrying about monsters, huh?” the demigod asked, a trace of bitterness to his tone. At Moana's worried glance towards their cumbersome guide, he continued, “He isn't listening. He's been mumbling to himself about treasure for the past ten minutes.”

Not entirely convinced, the girl swallowed and folded her arms to shield herself from the chill of the night. She fell into silence, struck with a sudden melancholy and tight squeezing within her chest. She felt … wrong . She felt a deep kind of sadness, and she knew it wasn't because she was close to cursed shadow-fire. Having come to understand that the monsters of Lalotai and the unruly goddess below were as complicated as humans, she grieved for them, wishing that she could simply banish away the darkness that haunted their hearts.

“Aren't you worried?” she asked quietly, breaking the silence.

“Yeah, about Te Po, like I said.” He paused stubbornly. “Oh, all right. He's the biggest problem I've got right now, okay? I don't care what happens, I just don't want him to become an even bigger problem. The only thing we've got on our side is the fact he likes you. We should probably keep it that way if we wanna stay outside of his stomach.” 

_“_ I guess,” Moana agreed sullenly, “but you've gotta face your problems, Maui, or we're not escaping this place. Hatred is the only monster, here.”

“Yeah, yeah, grandma. Who beat you with the wisdom-stick, huh? Kids these days, am I right?”

The girl felt her lower lip tremble as tears sprung to her eyes. Her sorrow had inflated to such a magnitude that all she wanted to do was lie down and cry. Of course she feared this place and those who dwelt within it, but a part of her had become fond of it, too, for it was a place untouched and misunderstood by man, not inherently wicked but dangerous enough to be frightening. The creatures, twisted by heartbreak and isolated without the love of the motherly Moon, would venture to the surface and tear down villages until there was nothing left.

Even Maui wouldn't be able to fight them all at once. He would fall. So too would her family, forced to watch as their heritage was dashed against the rocks.

She felt the demigod's large hand upon her back, offering a few comforting pats.

“Okay, I'm sorry. You're not really a grandma, and you're right, as usual. You know if you cry you're gonna make me cry and it's just gonna get real messy over here, so -”

Maui was interrupted by a sudden hug. The girl squeezed him as tightly as she could, trying to convey all of her affection. His soft hair pressed against her cheek and she smiled into it, a single tear trailing down the length of her cheek.

“You're my family, and I love you, so promise me you're not going to get into any more trouble,” she demanded, her voice thick with emotion. “No more tricking gods or stealing from them. You don't have to risk your life to give us gifts any more, okay? We'll live with what we have.”

Enormous arms enclosed around her, though briefly.

“Okay,” was the sincere response. When they parted, Moana could just make out her friend's small smile. “I missed having family. I'm not gonna make the same mistakes again.”

She smiled back, but beyond her hope, there was doubt. Was she really helping? Or was she just trying to prolong the inevitable?

Before she could dwell on it, she was thankfully roused from thought by a sudden shift in the atmosphere. Light. Blinking to become accustomed to the white-blue glow now adorning the forest, Moana gazed confusedly upwards, momentarily fooled into believing that the Moon had been released and returned to the sky. Such was not the case, though what she could see proved yet more miraculous. Distracted entirely from her conundrum, she quickly stood up, her large eyes fixed in wonder upon the watery heavens above.

Within the darkness of the ocean, she could see a small swarm of large fish swimming overhead, each of them glowing with that otherworldly light, like stars. They drifted forwards in perfect rhythm with each other, long tails swishing slowly from side to side. Then, apparently driven by a shared consciousness, they dove, emerging from the sky and falling some way before transforming in bright flashes of blue. They became colourful kingfishers, that same glow about them, and they flew onwards until their light diminished past the canopy.

“What are they?” Moana asked, humbled by what she had seen.

“Uh, I think ...” Maui began, sounding equally as dumbstruck. “They're Manaia! This is awesome! They're the messengers between the Underworld and and the world of men, but nobody's seen them for thousands of years. The gods must be trying to bargain with Te Po. They're a sign we're getting close to Taku Pāmamae, anyways.”

Tamatoa seemed equally interested in the Manaia, so much so that he stumbled sideways straight into a dying tree and through the other side. Broken chunks of wood rained heavily down onto his back. It was no issue for a creature of his size, of course, but it presented a danger to Moana, who was forced to dive out of the way before she was hurt. Maui was by her side in an instant and swatting the crab's back threateningly with his hook.

“Hey, watch where you're goin', ya clumsy idiot! Humans break easy! And can we get some light back here? How can ya even see where you're heading? Pretty sure you shoulda taken a left by that tree you just fell into.”

Tamatoa corrected his stance and growled irritatedly, his form alighting with his impressive but unnatural bioluminescence. It did, at least, afford them some light, even if it was likely a response forged by his anger. 

“Hey, quit back-seat driving, man. If you're so good, you take over! Then we'll spend the next ten years walking around in circles, and you'll be like: oh, if only I had listened to Tamatoa, but I stink so bad at everything!” the crab argued, mimicking Maui's voice with an exaggerated inflection. He had turned his head as much as feasibly possible to glare at them, the magical patterns on his face both threatening and captivating. “You two had best stop mumbling back there, or we're turning around and going home! Except Moana, 'cause she's on a mission to find my treasure, and except me, 'cause I'm taking us there.”

“You really think this is about your treasure?” the demigod asked, his tone so dry that it could rival the hottest of beaches. “Huh. Okay. Sure. I guess it doesn't mean anything that the Moon is trapped in the Underworld. Y'know, only the goddess that gave you smarts and your eternally yapping mouth. Just when I thought you might actually be in it for the good of it.”

“He is!” Moana insisted playfully, attempting to stave off any potential argument looming. “Deep, deep down. Aren't you, Tamatoa?”

As expected, her words flew past unnoticed. Even when the monster began to follow the Manaia, he kept one eye firmly fixed on Maui, the glowing orb narrowed in sheer distaste.

“And you're in it for the good of it?” he asked, a cruel, silken edge to his voice. “Admit it: all you're craving is the worthless cheers of your humans. Treasure is forever, but humans _die,_ Maui, and moons don't care. You'd know that better than anyone!”

Poised with rage, Maui stood with his fists clenched, temples throbbing.

Desperate to keep the fire contained, Moana forced a laugh and dashed between the demigod and the eyeball taunting him, holding out her arms to keep them from engaging much further.

“Okay, that's enough! Let's just follow the Manaia and see if they'll open the way to the Underworld!” she encouraged a little too loudly, and she beamed anxiously. “Because the Underworld is where we're going! We should probably just … carry on, or the Moon will be gone forever and humanity will die, so -”

Silenced by shock when Maui simply picked her up and placed her off to one side, Moana watched with dismay as the two enemies continued antagonising each other. Hadn't her efforts to make them work together meant anything? What was she missing?

“I'm gonna make the biggest sandwich outta you, pal!” Maui threatened, and by the look on his face, he clearly meant it.

“You and what bread?! Oh, I know what I'll do, I'll put you in the Pools of Pique until you turn into stone and I'll wear you and your hook on my shell! And maybe I'll take the Moon for myself and wear her like a stone around my neck! Ooh, why didn't I think of that before?”

“Maybe ya should! Maybe then she'll talk to you, huh? Maybe you can ask her why she cursed you to live as an ugly crab. Decorate yourself with gold or pretend to be a hero all you want, buddy, but nothing's ever gonna turn you into me .”

Perhaps it was the jab in the eyeball with the fish hook that sealed the deal, or perhaps Maui's words were cutting enough that Tamatoa abruptly stopped in his path. The crab's face began shaking as he prepared what would surely be an absolute monstrosity of an insult, eyes beginning to flash an array of colours in his outrage. Enormous teeth bared, his growl echoed menacingly across the forest as he desperately tried to pinch Maui off of his back with two snapping claws.

And then he stopped, his face falling strangely slack.

“Oh, no,” he mumbled, his eyeballs looking at each other briefly in an apparent display of confusion. “Time out! Breather! Interval! I feel like I've got a bazillion eels all squirming around in my stomach. Eurgh, all slimy and … on fire! Fire eels! I'm gonna throw up. What're you belligerent little barnacles doing just standing there?!”

Terrified, Moana took hold of Maui's arm, only to be met with a raised eyebrow.

“I think he's taken us far enough,” her friend concluded without a trace of doubt. “I can fly after the Manaia. I don't think we wanna be around when the corruption really starts.”

Upon hearing that dreaded word, Tamatoa gasped dramatically, his mouth falling open. Instead of fixating upon his anger, he instead turned his suddenly beseeching gaze towards Moana, knowing full well that if anybody was going to listen, it would be her.

“No, no, no, no! It wasn't supposed to happen to me . You're … you're the Chosen One, or something! You can stop it, can't you? Just ask the Ocean nicely and tell her all the good things I've done. I saved you from that man-eating plant and that toothy little imp! The least you could do is save me!” 

__I can't,_ _ she wanted to reply, because she didn't know how she was supposed to help. The Ocean was weakened and relying on her. They were all relying on her and she didn't know what to do. If she couldn't control the situation, she would fail all of her family and her friends, but she was quickly learning that she just wasn't capable. She wasn't capable of calming forces of nature, or forcing enemies to be friends. She couldn't stop the tides of anger or doubt. She could only watch as her friends were transformed into things monstrous to human minds, understanding that there was as much bad in them as there was good. She couldn't change that about them and she never would. 

Moana covered her face as the arguing resumed. Maui was being as aggressive as he was protective, challenging Tamatoa for asking the impossible of her. The monster continued panicking. All the while, their mission went ignored. The world remained dark, missing the moonlight and the tides, and it was because they were on the verge of failing, so close to the end and yet so far.

Love really could be a brittle thing. How could something that felt so strong be broken so easily? How was it so swiftly transformed into monsters and corruption?

Maybe there would come a time she would understand, but she was suddenly hindered in her consideration by a threat that went unnoticed to her friends thanks to their horrendous argument.

All the wind was knocked out of Moana as something thudded into her back so hard that she was flung forwards flat onto Tamatoa's shell. Pain erupted in her shoulders as whatever the thing was grabbed her with what felt like two sets of claws, yanking her down over the curve of the shell until gravity took hold and she was tumbling over the rough carapace. The fall was long, far too long for her human body, but she felt no pain when she finally hit the ground, because all the light that she could see was snuffed out and everything fell silent.

It all had happened too quickly, even for Maui and Tamatoa, who ceased arguing upon realising that Moana had mysteriously vanished into thin air.

A demon, one of the corrupted kakamora, had dragged her into the undergrowth, the creature's painted mask dimming within the shadows of the forest. 

 


	8. Ho'oponopono

“Uhh … Moana?”

Maui stared into the darkness between the trees, his blood rapidly becoming ice cold within his veins.

Even Tamatoa had fallen silent. He took several steps back to ensure that the human girl hadn't fallen underneath him, but she was nowhere in sight. At the slight rustling of leaves off to one side, he immediately raised himself up to his full, extremely imposing height and held his claws open to intimidate anything that could appear from the shadows.

His hair raising on his skin, Maui deftly climbed up onto Tamatoa's head and surveyed the chilling nothingness. Aside from the occasional rustle, the world had fallen silent, too, and the light of the Manaia had since abandoned them to whatever creatures lurked beyond the trees. His heart was urging him to delve into the unknown and save his best friend from whatever had stolen her, but his cunning managed to take precedence over all else; coming face to face with another corrupted monster would likely spell the end for him, given that he could barely see anything.

“How're you holding up?” he asked lowly, nudging the giant crab in the side of the head.

Tamatoa's suspicion was perhaps a given.

“Why? Are you going to fly away and leave me as a chew toy for these terrifying little Kakamora?”

“No, but that's plan B,” Maui hissed. “I meant this whole corruption thing, 'cause I'm gonna suggest we go off course and find Moana before they take her too far. I ain't leaving Lalotai without her, 'kay? If you want your treasure back, you're gonna have to help me find the person you made the deal with, 'cause I did _not_ agree to working with you.”

“Yes, yes, that's true,” Tamatoa agreed, surprisingly amiable. “She did say she would demand my treasure back. Or _else_. She can hardly do that if she's in teeny tiny little bits.”

The pair glanced at each other. It was important that they kept their cool, stayed calm, because there was probably something out there watching them that could do some serious damage if they lost their heads and barged into the trees.

They did that, anyway.

With the picture of an injured Moana fresh in his mind, Maui yelped her name and dove deeper into the forest, urgently cutting his way through the monstrous fauna with his fish hook. The impacts of the weapon against leering, fanged plants sent teeth and green goo flying this way and that, splattering across his skin and hair, but he couldn't care when he had one sudden and very important mission: find Moana, whatever the cost, and bring her back into safety. Even he didn't know the true extent of what eldritch monstrosities dwelled in Lalotai, and with those very beings rapidly becoming corrupted by a dark magic, there was no telling just what they would do with a human.

There was another impending danger a little closer to home, but Tamatoa, thundering along behind Maui as he cut his way past the trees with his claws, seemed to have recovered a little from his moment of discomfort and was also making chase, albeit noisily. Even in his panic, Maui acknowledged that the dumb crab had forsaken his penchant for running away in the face of danger.

Leaping high into the air, Maui grabbed hold of Tamatoa as he raucously approached and planted himself on the side of the monster's head, holding onto an eyestalk to support himself while keeping his other hand free for his fish hook.

“This way!” he demanded, aiming his weapon in the direction he deemed best. “C'mon, use these gross wriggly things on your head and sniff 'em out. Aren't you getting anything?”

The flashing antennae moved forwards, tasting the trees and the ground they passed.

“I'm getting ...” Tamatoa began, deliberating. “I smell … demons, though this entire plane of reality has smelt like demons for the past week! I smell …. eurgh, rotting fish! And I'm getting a waft of what might be sulphur, or you've eaten too much shellfish again, _Maui_ ,” he added accusingly, momentarily distracted from his barrage through the forest. “That human limpet stank of the plant that tried to gobble her up when she fell into Lalotai, but I can't smell it anywhere! All I'm getting is … _yeuch_ , the rising stench of _eau de misère_.”

Maui didn't need to be told that something smelt fishy, in every sense of the word.

The pungent odour had already started assaulting his nostrils, and the source of the all too familiar smell was quickly becoming apparent.

The magical light shining from Tamatoa's shell and markings illuminated a fog blooming around them. The trees were becoming sparse the further they ventured forwards, but it quickly became that any remaining were swiftly swallowed up by the thick, smelly fog that floated ominously in from the darkness around them.

“Oh, pee- _yew!”_ the crab spluttered, wafting a claw in front of his antennae. “It smells like dinner at my Grandma's house.”

“Shut up a minute, will ya?” Maui urged, boldly clambering over Tamatoa's face to keep the creature's mouth firmly shut between his fingers. “Same thing happened when Te Po turned up back on the surface. Either we're getting close to Abokas, or she's trying to throw us off course!”

Scrabbling to the top of his companion's head, the demigod tried to make sense of anything occurring around them. One thing was for sure, and it was that there was no way they could find Moana through the thick layers of fog that hung silently around them. They would only find themselves getting lost, and then they would be in even more trouble.

Maui was desperate. With each passing moment, Moana was taken further and further away.

First, he took a great breath and exhaled with enough force that in normal circumstances, the fog would have been blown away and dispersed into the air. There it remained, however, unaffected by the godly power within his lungs, as if nothing he did had any real impact in the cursed land. It was surely a design of the fog that they weren't supposed to escape, but was Te Po near and drawing amusement from their imprisonment, or was the land growing increasingly corrupted the closer they got to the entrance to her domain? Did the curse manifest in such a way as to toy with their weaknesses?

They had bested everything Lalotai had thrown at them thus far. Demons, falling torrents of ocean, monsters … Maui knew what Moana would say, however: the real monsters hadn't been conquered yet, and maybe that was the only way forwards.

She was always right.

Leaping down to the ground, the man turned to face his friend-turned-nemesis, the greedy, power-hungry crab that had once fit easily into the palm of his hand. The creature stared back at him in turn, something expectant in that enormous, beady gaze. Neither of them spoke for a time, as the thickness of the fog settled in their throats uncomfortably, stifling their words – or was it simply a reluctance to speak?

Maui cleared his throat, but Tamatoa butted in before he had a chance to say anything.

“Are you leaving me here?” the monster asked anxiously. “I suppose – yes, it's easy for you, you can just turn into a hawk and fly away.”

“Uh -”

“No, don't try to sugarcoat it for me!” Tamatoa beseeched, flinging a claw dramatically over his eyes. “I know you, Maui! So, go on, fly away, but do me one last favour before you abandon me to stinky fog and inevitable doom. It's not like I'll be able to ask one of anybody ever again!”

With an irritated huff, he lowered a claw to his shoulder and pried something off of it before flinging it at Maui.

The man caught the object easily after it impacted his chest. Opening his fingers, he found a solid lump of pounamu, the very same piece that Moana's father gifted her before seeing her depart across the ocean a second time. It was supposed to be carved, usually with the image of a Manaia, but it had been left blank for Moana to etch her own idea into the stone.

“I didn't steal it,” the crab continued, as if reading Maui's mind. “She gave it to me, and now I'm giving it back.”

Genuinely perplexed, Maui blinked up at his companion cluelessly.

“Since when have you given things to anybody?”

“I don't care what you do with it! I just don't want that lovely, shiny pounamu to get ruined! It'll get crushed or shattered or dunked in mud and drowned -” Appearing truly disheartened, Tamatoa lowered to the ground and dropped his face onto folded claws. “So, you should probably get going and save her before she's eaten, or something.”

Maui found himself smirking. Folding his arms, he shook his head with disbelief.

“Man, I really did think you were just pretending to care about her.” He flipped the pounamu and caught it before tying it onto the end of his fish hook. “Treasure ain't just gold and gems and super rare action figures – but you don't need me to tell you that, right?”

“Treasure ...” Tamatoa murmured, perking up for a moment. “You should have been there, Maui. She said she liked having me around! And I felt – I felt like I was gonna throw up, but I didn't, 'cause I hated kindness until she showed it to me.” Drooping yet further, the monster offered a rare, defeated kind of smile. “Anyways, treasure doesn't go so well with corruption. I don't want gems for eyes! I set my own style, even when transformed by dark magic! You'll kill me if I look hideous, won't you? I couldn't bear to be even uglier than I am without my gold!”

There came a pang deep within the demigod's chest. What was it? Guilt? Regret? Perhaps it was both, crawling down from the deepest recesses of his mind. The creepy fog slowly roiling around them likely wasn't helping, either, but Maui steeled himself and accepted his feelings without once trying to shun or escape them. With something of a grimace, he stepped forwards and patted a hand against Tamatoa's face.

“Ugly or not, the likes of me and you have hearts of gold beneath it all. That's why we were given second chances.”

Tamatoa blinked in confusion, his mismatched eyes focusing on Maui.

“But I wasn't given a second chance, I don't know what you're -” The crab paused, then, eyes widening as realisation struck. “Are you -?”

“Yeah, let's spare the sentiment, buddy. I'm still angry, and I know you are, too, and that's fine. That doesn't mean we can't be ...” Maui's voice cracked. Taking a deep breath, he continued, “friends. If Moana trusts you, then I do, too.” With a glance downwards, he scuffed his heel against the dirt distractedly. “I wasn't gonna leave you here. We'll figure it out, just like old times, huh?”

And there it was. Relief .

Saying it had been difficult, and he wasn't quite ready to afford the creature an apology (unless he received one, first). Whether it was a mistake or not, the heaviness of his heart lifted more than he expected it too, allowing him to breathe and to consider how good it felt to actually do what he thought was the right thing.

“Pah!” Tamatoa responded ungratefully, folding his claws with an air of belligerence. “And my name's Sebastian!”

“Hey, c'mon! I really mean it!” Maui insisted. “Look, why are ya here, ya great big idiot? What do you want? Be honest, 'cause I can tell when you're lying! Your antennae do this twitchy thing -”

“They do not!”

“They're doing it right now!”

Tamatoa immediately grabbed hold of his long antennae and held them fast, glaring down at the demigod with a frown so heavy it made his entire face droop.

“You're the one that's lying. You don't want to be my friend, you're just pretending, because … because.”

“Don't change the subject, caviar-for-brains. Just say it out loud. C'mon. You can do it. Once you say it, it makes ya feel a whole lot better. Just let it out. I'm all ears.”

Evidently struggling, Tamatoa pulled various strange faces as he tried to figure out how to vocalise exactly what was being asked of him.

“I – I want … uhh … I want to be beautiful again! No, wait, wait, I can't help it, it just came out! Let me try again!” The crab took a deep breath as if to steady himself. “I want … fish for dinner! Gold and silver! Pearls on strings and paintings from across the sea. I wanna glitter like a disco ball in sunlight. Is that too much to ask, Maui? Is it?!”

Maui raised an eyebrow, patient despite his urgent desire to escape the fog surrounding them.

“Try again. Be for real, this time. There's nobody here but me and you. I just need ya to say it!”

“Uh … carapace polish -”

“Nope.

“A nice charm bracelet!”

“C'mon, man.”

“A mother's love!” the monster burst out suddenly, his eyes wild. Slamming his claws down either side of the demigod, his supposed steely exterior swiftly began to crack and crumble. “Just like you! I wanna be liked but I can't do it without showing off, just like you! I wanna squish that Kamamora that's stolen the tiny, annoying little human, and I don't know why!” With that, Tamatoa began blubbing loudly into the sand, pressing Maui tightly against his cheek. “I was never really going to eat her, I was just trying to look tough and scary!”

Near asphyxiating against rubbery flesh, Maui barely managed to turn his head and gasp for air. He weakly patted Tamatoa's face in an attempt to end the sudden display of emotion.

“I-it's okay, buddy, but – ow – my head's going into my body. Can't breath -!”

Worse, he felt a fat, crustacean tear splash over the top of his head, dousing him in salt water.

“S-so this is what c-crying feels like!” Tamatoa wailed hysterically. “Oh, woe is me! And that poor little human thingy is probably fighting off endless demons as we speak! We'll be finding parts of her all over Lalotai. A hand over here, a foot over there, and then she'll have to moult to grow back her limbs and she'll be all soft and squishy for ages -”

“Then let's figure a way outta here, huh?!” Maui interjected before the imagery could become too gruesome. Barely managing to yank himself out of the crab's hold, he realigned his now crooked spine before clambering back up onto the creature's head to search for a way out of their predicament.

A small voice arose. A pair of enormous, fearful eyes swivelled around to watch him.

“Maui?”

“What? Have ya seen a way out?”

“No, I'm ...” Tamatoa mumbled, struggling yet again with his words. “I don't want to be corrupted. It looks like it kind of stinks.”

Maui sighed, feeling a pang of reluctant but genuine sympathy.

“Can you feel it?

“Yes, yes, right in my chest, where my heart is. At least, I think that's where my heart is. It could be in my butt, just like my lungs. Who really knows? It would be just my luck to be cursed butt-first. Is bringing the Moon back going to stop it? Maybe?”

Not knowing how to respond, Maui remained in silence. He wasn't going to lie and say that yes, saving the Moon from the Underworld and putting her back into the sky would heal the damage already done, but he didn't want the monster to fall into a state of despair, either. There was every chance that the Moon's power would restore balance to Lalotai and protect everything within from the shadows that had long lain dormant underneath it.

But what if it was too late?

“I don't know,” he replied honestly, shrugging weakly. “I know that Moana will fight to help you, so if there's a way, we'll do it. We just need to find her, first.”

A thick film of fluid welled up within Tamatoa's eyes again. One might have suspected another dramatic outburst of emotion was forthcoming, but the creature managed to collect himself before such a thing occurred.

“Right!” The crab thoughtfully rubbed a claw against his lower lip, as if considering something. “Well, this smelly fog is invincible to your wind-breath and my flashy shininess. I thought it might have lifted by now, because ... metaphor. Looks like we're gonna have to hitchhike our way out of here on a bigger, scarier monster. Quickly, wield your opposable thumbs, mammal!”

Convinced they would have to resort to such desperate measures, Maui swiftly became distracted by a sudden shift in their environment.

The fog was suddenly being illuminated a variety of colours, flashing through the spectrum in a hypnotic fashion. He realised it was because the bioluminescent light that radiated from the monster he was stood upon was shifting, sifting through a magnitude of bright colours as easily as an octopus, various shapes and patterns manifesting over the creature's hard shell until at last it settled on an inky black littered with white spots.

“Uh -” Maui began, sliding down Tamatoa's neck to stand on the shell, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. “Crabcake, you're changing colour!”

“What?!” the monster barked, peering over his shoulder to stare at the spots slowly roaming over his back.

His facial markings had vanished, as had his blue stripes, for whatever magic fuelled them had since moved to gather primarily on his shell in an odd display. The spots moved slowly and in perfect unison, like stars travelling across the night sky.

“Oh, what's this?” Tamatoa immediately panicked, desperately reaching back to try and catch some of the glowing spots in his claws. “Plague! You and your human have brought disease to this realm!”

“No, wait!”

The glowing spots were mostly white, but some sparkled different colours, too. There were long, milky arms of them stretching from one side of the shell to another, bands of light glittering, and it was then Maui realised what he was looking at. With a rising smile, he glanced upwards and saw that the spots of light were shining against the heavy thickness of the fog over their heads, creating a perfect illusion that mimicked the night sky.

A _map_.

“It's not plague,” the demigod reassured his companion. He held a hand up to the false stars, measuring them with his palm and fingers. “It's our way forwards. Man, I had no idea you could do that, but it's awesome! Which way were you heading before we got sidetracked?”

Enthralled with the subconscious display of magic, Tamatoa stared up at the shining stars, then back towards his own shell.

“Uh, south, I guess.”

“Then we'll head that way. We've got no other leads on where Moana could be. C'mon!” Bounding joyfully back up onto Tamatoa's head, Maui grabbed the antennae there and used them to steer the monster in a southern direction. “Che- _hooooo!_ Yip-yip, ya giant ball of genius! Let's go get our friend back!”

With that, the pair made off through the thickness of fog and forest with purpose, no longer fearing the watch of malicious entities now that their confidence was restored. Maui in particular felt stronger now that he knew where he was, for the lack of stars in Lalotai had always been stifling, but now he had power in the knowledge of direction. For a moment, he could convince himself he was steering a canoe upon a dark stretch of ocean.

All that was missing was the Moon.

It was a small while later that Tamatoa's colours returned to normal, flooding back to his face and legs. Only when the darkness of the forest began to alleviate did they vanish altogether.

The end of the fog rested at the edge of the tropical forest. Once they travelled through it, they were hit with a wall of fresh air and clarity to their vision. Upon looking back, the unnatural stretch of heavy mist clung to the trees, unmoving, settled across them like a ghost of great size. It was enough to make Maui feel highly uncomfortable, but then again, the dreary place was preferable to what he faced in Abokas.

The clearing they had escaped into was irregular in shape. It featured hundreds of enormous jagged, stone spires that stretched from the ground like claws. In the very centre of them was the largest tree that occupied the forest, but had clearly long since been drained of life, for its dark branches sagged to the extent that they touched the earth. Its exterior was black as volcanic stone. It was a lonely thing, without a doubt, secluded from its peers, and in death it had become something else entirely.

A gateway. At the base of the tree was a sealed wound. Maui knew that upon the time of a full moon, the wound would open and reveal the way to the Underworld.

He could hardly pay it any attention, however, because Moana was nowhere in sight.

“Got any more cool magic tricks up your sleeve?” he asked Tamatoa, trying not to sound as small as he felt.

“Look, man, I've got no idea how I did that. I must've just -”

“Panicked. Yeah, I know, I've done crazy things when I'm stressed out, too. I guess all monsters are a bit magical, huh? Something to do with the fact you're all powered by a goddess' shattered heart? So, yeah, think fast, buddy, 'cause Moana isn't here and we've gotta find her.”

“What am I gonna do, Maui? Grow wings and then find her with my mind powers? That's not how it works! I can't smell her 'cause of all this nasty fog, and I definitely can't see her. Pah, she's so small, I couldn't see her even when she was around!”

Ignoring his companion, Maui transformed into a hawk and flew up to the top of one of the stone spires, grasping its pointed tip as he used his enhanced vision to gaze fretfully out across the clearing. There was no sight of Moana. There was no sight of anything. She was gone, and he had failed her because he had allowed her to get taken away in the first place. If he hadn't been so set on arguing, it wouldn't have happened at all.

“What do I do?” he asked aloud, feathered head lowering. He was asking anybody that was listening, which unfortunately for him, amounted to a being who knew no more than he did. “I can't let anything happen to her. She's the Ocean's Chosen! I was meant to protect her! What kind of lousy friend am I if something terrible happens, huh?”

Tamatoa, as adept at climbing as his much smaller kin, clambered the short distance up the stone spire it took to match Maui's height.

“We're at the place she kept blabbering on about,” the crab attempted. “Blah, blah, blah, Underworld this, heroism that. Who else is going to find their way better than her? I mean, you bipeds, you all think you're so great at finding your way around, and she's the most insistent little thingy I've ever met.”

Maui turned his eyes to the sky. It was dark and unyielding.

“A master Wayfinder still needs the stars.”

 

* * *

 

There was the ocean, again.

Moana must have been dreaming. She always saw the ocean in her dreams. Once upon a time, she had always been placed on the shore, watching the horizon forlornly. Now? She skated across it on her precious canoe, one hand trailing through the gentle waves as she sped onwards towards an unknown destination.

The place was rife with magic. She knew that much. The sun, now sinking below the horizon, did not shine golden, but an eerie green-blue. The stars swam in the sky like spirits, and when the sun vanished, they awoke and gathered into the forms of various animals. Moana gazed upwards in awe as sharks, whales, turtles, and various birds and lizards unstuck themselves from the heavens and soared through the blackness of the sky.

Some of them descended down and dove into the ocean. The creatures, now taking a more solid form, travelled with the young chief, beautiful constellations glittering across their bodies. They were infused with an unknown blue magic, the very same aura of light that encompassed Gramma Tala's manta ray spirit. These creatures were no doubt the Aumakua of legend, the guardian ancestors that watched over and protected their families.

Gramma Tala was amongst them. She was was sure of it. She could feel her presence, even if she couldn't see her amongst the hundreds upon hundreds of other spirits.

Ahead, the tiniest island that Moana had ever seen grew ever closer, and it was there that a glowing figure in the shape of a bird landed. Steering towards it, she saw that the bit of land was no larger than her canoe, boasting a single palm tree and a rather disgruntled spirit that she realised wasn't one of the Aumakua, but of the Manaia, the shape-shifting messengers of the gods. She was able to make the differentiation because she knew from the tales her grandma told her that the Manaia bore the bodies of birds and the heads of men.

With the canoe now safely parked partly on the island, Moana stepped cautiously onto the sand, confusedly eyeing the Manaia. It easily one of the oddest things that she had ever seen, and that was saying something. With the beautiful white feathers of an owl and the head of a stern, perhaps angry woman, it stood at near equal height with her, with large, unnatural eyes staring unblinkingly forwards.

The young chief awkwardly bowed, unsure whether it was the correct thing to do, but the Manaia seemed satisfied with that.

“Um -” Moana attempted, breaking the silence, but she was swiftly interrupted.

“Where's your pass?”

“I … my what?”

“Your _pass_. Everybody gets one! It means I can grant you passage to the afterlife.”

The girl's blood suddenly ran cold. Feeling sick with horror, all she could do was look down at her hands and confirm that she was indeed pass-less.

“I'm dead?” she managed, running a hand through her hair. “But – I wasn't – I can't remember what -”

“Most people can't remember. It's normal! What isn't normal is that you just look, well, human. Pac- _caaahh!”_ The Manaia covered her mouth with her wings, apparently offended by the noise that had just escaped her. “Oh! Pardon me. That happens when I get angry.”

Filled with dismay, poor Moana felt the heat of tears rise to her eyes. She lowered back down onto the sand of the tiny island and leant against the palm tree, wrapping her arms around herself.

“I'm sorry, I don't know why I don't have a pass.”

“Yes. Unusual,” the Manaia harrumphed, rustling her feathers. “Well, you're probably not dead, then, but your spirit is here and your body is somewhere else. _Very_ unusual. As if I needed another spirit trapped in this place! You see, you're not the first unusual thing to have happened as of late. The Aumakua aren't supposed to be here, either, but without the Moon's power, they can't exist within the mortal realm. Now I have thousands of bickering idiots all squashed into my realm. _Caaaww!”_

Horribly confused and still fearful, Moana took several deep breaths, steadying herself. If she was indeed still alive, then she was in this place for a reason, and it was yet another hurdle within her adventure. She had bound across so many others that to fall now would only be a travesty.

“I was on my way to retrieve the Moon,” she said firmly, her tone now much calmer than it was moments previously. “I am Moana. I was venturing to Abokas to bring a flame to Te Po in exchange for the Moon. Something happened, and now I'm here.”

“Oooh!” the creature hooted, the feathers around her neck rising with interest. “Moana, familiar of the Ocean! Just as I am a familiar of the Moon herself,” she announced proudly. “Yes, that's right. I guide the spirits of passed islanders to where they need to go, but without the power of the tides, the clockwork is all clogged, so to speak. That Te Po has really ruffled my feathers! I'd show her a thing or two if I ever got my – _caaahh_ \- talons on her!”

The girl raised her head, suddenly determined.

“I need you to tell me everything about them,” she murmured. “Talalelei and Te Po. I need their history. I need to be able to understand.”

Understanding was, after all, the only way to help them both. 

 


	9. My, My, Moana

Whether it was a dream or not, Moana knew that whatever was to transpire next, it would be something of importance.

Trapped within some kind of spirit realm, surrounded by slow-moving Aumakua that glittered beneath the waves and in the sky, the young chief rose to her feet as she gazed upon the magical creature, the Manaia.

"Do you have a name?" she asked gingerly, hoping to ease the creature's stern countenance. The Manaia's features bared a woman about the same age as her mother, and her wild hair was loose and trailed far down her feathery back. The more Moana looked at her, the less odd she appeared. Instead, she became something of great unearthly beauty. Just because Moana didn't completely understand who or what she was, it didn't make her scary or unlovely.

"What? No. Why would I need a name? I've spent thousands of years carting off spirits to the places they need to go. Not _one_ of them has asked me if I have a name," the Manaia shot back, turning her pointed nose up into the air indignantly. "The Moon never gave me a name."

Somewhat saddened by that, Moana nodded, appearing thoughtful.

"Can I give you a name?" she asked, offering a smile. "I like the name Hanohano. It suits you, I think. Uhm, that's only if you like it, actually, and you can get rid of it once I'm gone, if you want -"

"No," Hanohano interjected, raising her feathers to her lips in a tearful display of gratitude. "I _love_ it! Oh, for the first time since I pulled myself from my egg, I feel like I could be considered a person! What a name! I have been named by the Ocean's Chosen! The other Manaia will be so jealous. Finally! While they're fluttering about the mortal world doing the gods' business, I have something that they don't."

Not having expected such a reaction, Moana stood silently on the sand, mouth agape.

"The Moon never even would have considered it, you see," Hanohano continued, so excited to be relaying her story that her voice cracked into bird-like screeches every now and then. "Well, if you need to hear the story of Talalelei and Te Po, it would be better if you saw it for yourself. I can hardly believe that such a story has become lost to you forgetful mortals."

Raising her great wings, Hanohano suddenly began to perform an elaborate haka, eventually landing in the mysterious ocean around them. From the point her clawed feet penetrated the water, a blue magic spread and then rose into the air, forming remarkably detailed pictures with tiny droplets of water. It was such an impressive display that Moana remained speechless, feeling rather emotional upon witnessing such power.

Rainbows gave the moving picture its colour. There was Lalotai, without a doubt, the most colourful island that had ever existed above the waves. Upon its shore stood a figure shrouded in white: Talalelei, who wore flowers in her long hair and barely touched the earth with her feet. Beside her was a tall, willowy woman, who boasted a long face and permanent expression of melancholy.

The pair seemed entirely different, and yet, their hands were joined as they gazed towards the ocean.

"They loved before love was even known to exist!" Hanohano declared, proudly gazing up at the magical image she had created. "Neither of them understood it, and yet every day they would walk together along the same shore, Te Po learning about the night sky, and Talalelei learning of the deep ocean. Two alien worlds destined to be kept apart for eternity."

The Manaia soared into the air and through the water droplets. When the image reformed, Talalelei stood upon Lalotai alone as Te Po walked bitterly into the ocean. The latter was headed towards something burning upon the ocean, her form glowing with the light of fire and smoke, a new found power gleaming within her dark eyes.

"Hundreds of years later, they drifted apart. All Talalelei had was her precious island and the memories it carried. Te Po had the comet's fire, and she hoarded its warmth for herself, carrying it deep, deep down into the depths as she proclaimed it was far too dangerous for mortal hands. Iknew that she wanted it all for herself!"

Confused, Moana gazed sadly up at the beautiful droplets of ocean water as they slowly began to trickle back down from whence they came.

"But why?" she asked, gently clasping her grandmother's necklace in her hand. "Why did they drift apart?"

"How should I know? That's their business. I'm just the one that ferries off mortals to other planes of existence." Hanohano replied briskly, landing gracefully back onto the sand with a sweep of her wings. " _Caahh!_ Understand that Te Po was never like the other gods. They often clashed. Did you know that she once stole the warspear of Oro'a just to catch fish? And knocked all the air right out of To Whiri? What kind of god does that?!"

Hanohano cleared her throat smugly, apparently enjoying being listened to. With another wave of her wings, she formed small clouds from the ocean and flew up to somehow step upon them, leaping from one to the next in a dramatic display. The clouds began to unleash rain upon the ocean, summoning forth bright rainbows that faded in and out of existence.

 

_"My, my, Moana!_

_You are far too young_

_To be fretting over these gods unsung_

 

_Your tale, Moana!_

_I have seen it all!_

_Battling monsters, ugly, big, and small_

 

_Oh dear, Moana_

_You can't love them, too_

_You can bet that they don't care about you!"_

 

Moana raised a hand, attempting to interrupt.

"Um, I thought that you didn't know who I … How did you …?"

Hanohano wasn't listening, smiling as she dived back down to the island and wrapped a protective wing around the girl's shoulders.

 

_"For thousands of years I've stood right here!_

_Sending away all the dead that dare sail near_

_In all that time I have learnt a thing or two:_

_That no matter one's deeds, just like you_

_Their mana will sail right past this shore_

_And it's my job to help them – no, my chore!_

 

_I've seen every mortal that has shed their shell_

_Every stinking bug, bird, and beast as well_

_I've seen heroes and villains come by now and then_

_Good or bad, does it even matter when_

_They all get the same chances at the end?!_

_I thought the point was for the wicked to mend!_

 

_See here, Moana_

_With the Moon gone shy_

_The wicked run rampant from Lalotai_

 

_My dear Moana_

_I, Hanohano_

_I'll help you sort this mess caused by Te Po!"_

 

Both unnerved and intrigued by the Manaia's tale, Moana listened patiently, allowing the creature to guide her about the small island. When she was abruptly turned by Hanohano, she stared up at her with wide eyes, noting the expression of insistence on the woman's face.

 

_"A Wayfinder found his way into trouble_

_I dusted him off and picked him out of the rubble_

_He scoffed in my face and didn't ask my name_

_He became an Aumakua all the same!_

_'Cause the Heart of the Moon was softened by love_

_Too soft, in fact, when push came to shove_

 

_Jealous Te Po saw how the Moon loved the dead_

_She saw to claim them into her world, instead_

_With this Aumakua set to haunt the living_

_Te Po knocked his mana into a living being!_

_Now accidentally living within a crustacean_

_Shadows and fire weren't his destination_

 

_You see, Moana_

_The Moon still loved him_

_More than she had loved Te Po on a whim_

 

_Tragic, Moana_

_For she did not know_

_How to put on show her love for Te Po_

 

_It ends, Moana_

_A rock in the sky_

_Cannot get by just by saying goodbye."_

 

The young chief turned back towards the mysterious ocean surrounding the island. Contemplatively, she stepped into the water and remained there, peering into the waters to seek the Aumakua within. She was looking for her grandma. She couldn't see her. It was difficult to see anything at all, in fact, because the light that shined off the bodies of the deified ancestors was slowly fading.

The Moon gave them power, then, and now that she was gone, their spirits were trapped in this … nothingness. This crossroads of the afterlife, where the dead were either granted eternal rest by Te Po, or reincarnation and transformation at the hands of Talalelei.

She saw their apparent disagreement as something of a mutual affair, even if Hanohano seemed more than willing to blame everything on the mysterious goddess that owned the Moon's heart.

And what was that about crustaceans?

"Wait," Moana burst out, her thoughts interrupted. "Was that … Tamatoa? The crab? It wasn't the Moon who created him?"

Hanohano sighed impatiently. "Yes, yes, him. Apparently, he had done _something_ to earn the right to Aumakua-hood. I suppose Te Po cursed his mana to wander for years until it settled upon the first thing it came across! A slimy little egg! And the Moon still looked out for him!" The Manaia then laughed almost manically. "And then there's the likes of me who have been serving for eons and, well, I'm still here! Hah! _Pa-caahhah!"_

"But why would Te Po do that?" Moana questioned, running a hand through her hair. "I thought she hid herself away in the Underworld? You said she wanted to make a world for the dead. What did some Aumakua ever do to her?"

"Don't question it!" Hanohano squawked quickly. "The gods move in mysterious ways, and all that! My, I didn't see the Moon for … years and years and years before this all happened! At least I can take pride in that I have continued my work, regardless, guiding the dead either to the moon or the depths. Oh, and _bad_ people now become coconut crabs. I took inspiration from Te Po's little mishap!"

Moana turned back to the Manaia and offered a small, wary smile.

"So, you wanna help get Talalelei back, right? I'm sure all these guys can look after themselves in the meantime."

"And the dead can wait!" Hanohano agreed enthusiastically. "Oh, how marvellous! I can finally venture away from this place and save my glorious Talalelei. She'll have no choice but to remember that I exist!" The creature hopped forwards and took the girl's head between the tips of her wing feathers, smiling a wide, toothy smile. "First, however, you need to wake up."

Moana jolted suddenly. Terrified, by the unconscious movement, Moana stared down at herself, hoping that nothing too untoward was happening.

That became the least of her concerns, however, when the island she was stood upon began to move. Casting her panicked gaze outward, she saw that the ocean was moving, too. The entire world – or whatever this place was – was turning upside-down.

With a shriek, Moana dived for the single palm tree in an attempt to hold onto it as the island turned to hang from where the sky once was, but the leaves grazed her fingers as she left the ground and fell down, down, down towards the sky, screaming and waving her limbs about as she went.

"See you on the other side!" she heard Hanohano call.

Then, the thundering sound of falling ocean water silenced, and Moana opened her eyes.

 

* * *

 

Maui had since encountered his next problem.

Tamatoa wasn't going anywhere.

The monster was flat on his belly in the middle of the clearing that housed Taku Pāmamae. Said tree towered over them like a mountain, its dark, shrivelled exterior giving them no clue as to what resided within, and there was no way that Maui could try and force his way inside without the giant crab's help.

"C'mon, man!" he urged, running up against Tamatoa's side in an attempt to knock some life into him. When that did nothing but encourage a horrible, rumbling moan from the monster, he ran around to the crab's face and found himself being suddenly squashed by his friend's giant tongue as it lolled lifelessly out of his mouth.

"Bleeeehh."

"Really, guy?" Maui said from the dirt, lifting the tongue and throwing it off to one side. "Saliva everywhere! It's gonna take me days to wash this out. Gross!" he complained as he ran his hands through his hair, sticky goop clinging to his fingers. Much to his dismay, his impressive mane of hair remained stuck upright as a result. " _Really_ gross! What's gotten into you, huh? You were raring to go five minutes ago."

"Shuddup, Maui," Tamatoa retorted after retrieving his tongue from the dirt. "I feel like I'm dying."

Growing impatient, Maui grabbed two handfuls of Tamatoa's rubbery flesh and gave the monster's head a firm shake. Any other time, he would have earned himself a solid thwack into the nearest tree, but his friend seemed adamantly sick, his claws unmoving on the ground and his eyes drooping down his face.

"Look, we've gotta find Moana," the demi-god insisted, giving his companion another shake. "Okay, I geddit, you're feelin' rough! Well, there'll be plenty of time to sleep it off when we've found her and put the Moon back in the sky, okay? I think ..." Another shake. "I think you're forgetting just how important this whole thing is!"

The ground shook somewhat as Tamatoa made some feeble and shaky attempts to drag himself across the ground, but he quickly gave up, clumsily face-planting the dry mud beneath him.

"Uuuugh! I can't, Maui. This is the _end_ of the great and terrible Tamatoa! I want to be buried with my greatest love: my treasure hoard. Will you … will you set up some horrible booby traps so that other monsters won't steal it from me? When I say horrible, I mean, like, spikes and poison and maybe an army of Kakamora because they're so annoying. Oh! And I want Moana to sing a song, too. That's not a booby trap, by the way, although -"

"You ain't dying, ya great idiot! It's just the corruption! And how the heck am I supposed to bury you, huh? Drop an entire island over you?"

Tamatoa grunted with discomfort, a puff of dirt erupting around his face as he did. Raising his head, his unfocused eyes settled on the trees ahead.

"It's different, Maui! I feel like everything I'm made of is just … just … draining away like a coconut in a whirlpool! Oh no, ugh, I'm having visions! Hallucinations! I can see Moana being chased by a white owl with a woman's face and a band of demons! Running right for us! Oh! I would be highly confused if any of this was real."

The demigod span around upon hearing a commotion behind him. His heart suddenly felt like it was performing a neat flip into his throat.

Moana!

Without hesitation, the man cheered and began to ran towards the horde of demons that were in full pursuit of his friend and whatever the creature was beside her. Lowering himself into a sprint, he leapt high over their heads and inhaled deeply to then exhale a violet gust of air that blasted the demons backwards along the ground. The monsters screeched and squawked, holding onto their masks for dear life as they were sent sailing back, thudding into tree trunks or vanishing into the shadows beyond.

Chittering agitatedly, they scuttled away, successfully bested.

Without a second thought, he turned and scooped Moana up into his arms, embracing her tightly but always careful not to harm her with his great strength.

"It's really you, right?" he asked, holding her out in front of him to get a good look at her. There was a nasty bruise on the girl's forehead, and she seemed a bit worse for wear, but she was alive and that was what mattered. "This ain't just some cruel trick? What happened to you?"

"It's really me, Maui," the young chief responded with a proud smile. "I ended up in the afterlife. It was so cool! And then I woke up in a nest of demons and I've been running ever since! Luckily I had Hanohano to help me along. She's a Manaia! And -" Whatever Moana had to say next was swiftly stifled by another firm hug on her friend's part.

She was alive. He had been so terrified that the worst might have come to pass and that he had lost her. He couldn't even conceive of the pain he'd have felt if he had indeed failed her. The young woman was his best friend, his companion in his adventures. What would he have done with himself if she was lost to him?

Fortunately, he didn't have to worry. With an elated laugh, he spun the woman around a few times before releasing her and grabbing the wing of the nearby Manaia, furiously shaking it with glee.

"Hey, thanks!" he commended. Pausing upon getting a good look at the mysterious creature, he suppressed the urge to take a step back and grimace at her unusual appearance. "Wow. I mean – Uh, wow, thanks. For helping Moana. Wait." Spinning back to face Moana, he grabbed her by the arms again. "You were in the afterlife? You _died?!_ What the … Oh, man. I should've been there. It was just – one second you were there and then you were gone and we couldn't find you, then some stinky fog came down and we had to fight our metaphorical demons only to be met with real demons again right now, but you're here, and ... _You died?!"_

"I think I was just knocked out!" Moana replied, attempting to placate him. "Don't worry about it, Maui. I'm back, and Hanohano's gonna help us get the Moon back into the sky. We're so close!" Ducking out of Maui's hold, the girl looked up at the great, haunted tree that cast its shadow over the forest. "Closer than I thought. Now we just have to figure out how to get the gateway to open. Hanohano, do you know how we can get into Abokas?"

"Everybody and their _mothers_ know that the gateway only opens on the night of a full moon," the Manaia said snootily, strutting towards the roots of the monstrous tree. Her dark eyes surveyed the scar that marred its surface. "Hmm. Perhaps some sort of sacrifice?"

Maui snorted. "Yeah, and what do you recommend for that, huh? Look, the goddess wants to be difficult! We can strike up a fire right here and if she doesn't open the way, then does she really want the fire in the first place?" He spoke surely, covering up the slight strain in his voice that suggested he was still shaken up over losing his best friend. Regardless, he kept his protective gaze upon Moana, watching as she darted over to the struggling crab nearby.

"This isn't just about the fire, you know," Hanohano shot back, quickly twisting her head to an unnatural extent and fixing her fierce eyes upon the demigod. "Te Po is testing those who earned the Moon's favour over her. She's testing the Ocean's Chosen. What makes you all so great compared to her, hm?"

Maui wasn't sure he liked the woman's tone. Unable to shake off the discomfort he felt, he picked up his fish hook and held it tight.

"Who the heck are you, anyways?" he asked uncertainly. "Some kinda messenger from Abokas?"

"I'm a walking, talking signpost that guides the dead. While I can show spirits the way to Abokas, I don't know how to enter it myself. We'll just have to figure it out. At the moment, I'm thinking physical force, but even you can't tear a hole in that tree, can you, Maui?"

"Look, I don't wanna make Te Po angrier than she already is, 'kay? I'm definitely thinking twice about destroying her garden décor."

"Hm," Hanohano grumbled. "What does it matter? So long as you get in, that's what counts! Well, what about him? Surely his size must come in use for something!" she asked, gesturing towards Tamatoa. "Just tell him there's treasure inside!"

Even more uncomfortable, now, Maui remained where he was stood, brow furrowing as he tried to put two and two together.

"You know an awful lot for someone who hasn't been around, lady. Have you been watching us this whole time? 'Cause, you know, we coulda used some help every now and then. I'm grateful that you helped Moana, but ..."

"But?" the Manaia questioned. "Yes, I have been watching! What else am I supposed to do in the afterlife? For thousands of years, all I have been able to do is watch, but enough is enough! Now is my opportunity to shine! I'm going to save Talalelei, and -"

"If you're thinking about singing right now, you can turn that idea up on it's head -"

"- and I'll be more than some glorified signpost!"

As the two continued bickering, Moana was already elsewhere.

She made her way over to Tamatoa. Kneeling down in front of his face, she placed a hand on his rubbery skin, stirring him into wakeness. The monster had to blink a few times before he seemed to make sense of what he was seeing.

"Barnacle? Am I dreaming? What? Crabs can't dream," he questioned groggily. "Can they?"

"I think they do," she girl said back. Though she felt a pang of sadness at her friend's state, she offered a kind smile. "Wow! Look how far you've come, Tamatoa! You travelled all this way, fought monsters, and made some friends. All of those things can be really difficult, but you did it." She swallowed thickly. "You just need to hold on a bit longer. Don't let it get the better of you."

"Babe, please. I'm the size of an island! The only thing that has ever gotten the better of me is you, you terrible little shrimp-girl. What coconut crab worth his salt likes someone without wanting to eat them, too?"

Moana did her best to hold back the tears that were suddenly building in her burning eyes. Withholding a small sob, she leaned forwards and pressed her nose gently against her friend's face, then exhaled.

"Whatever happens, I'll always be your friend, okay?" she promised quietly. Ending the hongi, she stood up and stroked the spot between her friend's eyes.

There came no reply, but she felt a giant claw nudge her slightly from behind in a kind of enormous crustacean hug. It was a brief moment of theirs to share, for that same claw was soon picking her up by the back of her clothes and placing her a small distance away.

"Good luck, Moana."

With that, the monster used his legs and claws to bury himself into the dirt, shuffling it behind him until he was buried up to his shell. It was something he usually did when he was settling down to sleep, but Moana knew there was every chance he wouldn't wake up as the monster she knew. Without his characteristic features on show, he appeared nothing more than an enormous rock protruding from the earth, and for a moment, she tried to force herself to believe that was exactly what he was.

With a frown, the girl tore her gaze from her friend and headed back to Maui, who was still arguing with the Manaia lady. She sighed, and walked towards the great tree that proved the next obstacle, placing a hand on the scar that indicated the way in.

"We have the fire, Te Po," she offered quietly.

There was only silence.


End file.
